General Cigar Parts Ways With President Dan Carr
General Cigar Co. has dismissed president Dan Carr. General is one of the world's largest cigar companies, making such major brands as Macanudo, La Gloria Cubana, Partagas, Punch and Hoyo de Monterrey.
General is owned by Scandinavian Tobacco Group of Søborg, Denmark. The company's chief executive officer Niels Frederisken was appointed to the post in March of this year.
Carr took the reins of General Cigar Co. in 2010 as it celebrated its 50th anniversary of making cigars by hand. Carr ed General in 1996 at the height of the cigar boom, quickly rising to vice president of sales. When Swedish Match AB bought the company's mass-market business in 1999, he went to work on the Stockholm firm's White Owl machine-made cigars, Red Man chewing tobacco and other products.
In 2005, Swedish Match acquired General Cigar and returned Carr to that division as its senior vice president of sales and marketing in 2007. Promotions to chief operating officer in 2009 and then president in 2010 followed in rapid succession. When Swedish Match merged in 2010 with the European giant Scandinavian Tobacco Group, Carr was charged with integrating the U.S. operations of both companies.
Alan Willner, General's vice president of marketing, has been named interim president. A formal announcement with more information is expected from General Cigar next week.
