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Home > What's New > Blaze Consumes Leading Producer of Cigar Molds
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Blaze Consumes Leading Producer of Cigar Molds
Posted: Monday, December 17, 2007
By Gregory Mottola
Fan and customer Carlos Fuente Jr. (right) looks over a selection of molds at BLH Industries with founder Barry Herbst.
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A December 7 fire destroyed the manufacturing facility of BLH Industries, the Abbottstown, Pennsylvania, company that creates high-density polyethylene cigar molds for a large portion of the cigar industry.
According to The Evening Sun, a daily newspaper serving the Greater Hanover and Gettysburg areas in Pennsylvania, the two-alarm fire began in the attached building of a separate business, JenCo MicroEdge Inc., but quickly spread to BLH, consuming the manufacturing facility and destroying most of its contents and inventory. The fire was caused by faulty wiring in JenCo's furnace, according to the Sun.
"Once the fire hit the molds and the raw material, it was like someone poured gasoline on the blaze," said Barry Herbst, president and founder of BLH Industries. "That material that we use is so pure and so clean that it multiplied the temperature of the fire many times over," added Kay Herbst, vice president of BLH. "Flames were shooting out of the top of the building. The steel access doors melted."
No one was injured in the fire, and BLH's administrative offices were, for the most part, undamaged. The computer files containing invaluable digital design information were also intact, meaning BLH will likely be able to resume regular production in two to three months, Barry Herbst said.
BLH's molds are conceptualized via computer design software. The sometimes elaborate design parameters are then programmed into a machine, which then creates a mold out of the raw slabs of polyethylene. At cigar factories, the mold is used by cigar bunchers, who press a binder leaf -- which envelops several filler leaves -- into it to give the cigar its shape.
Barry Herbst has a few options for maintaining operations until he can rebuild his facility, which include filling orders in a nearby factory. This time of year, most of BLH's clients are on a long holiday, so there won't be too many orders to fill, giving Herbst more time to focus on the future of BLH. Currently, he is working out the details with his insurance company.
BLH changed the cigar-making industry when it introduced high-density, machined plastic molds to the cigar world in 1989. Since then, polymer molds have been replacing wood molds across a considerable portion of the industry. BLH Industries manufactures molds for companies such as Altadis U.S.A. Inc., C.A.O. International Inc., General Cigar Co., La Aurora S.A. and Tabacalera A. Fuente y Cia.
Click here to read more about BLH Industries from the December 2006 issue of Cigar Aficionado magazine.
Photo by Joshua Cogan
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