CAO

The hard work came from the founder Cano year Ozgener, born in Moda 1937, one of the nicest districts in Istanbul. A ping-pong master during his high school year in Turkey. Cano (pronounced "Jonno") emigrated to America 1961 and graduated from Columbia University as an engineering student. Cano enjoyed smoking cigars and pipes-especially meerschaums, pipes that were artistically carved in Ozgeners homeland of Turkey. After graduation, Cano worked as an engineer at Dupont; But his appreciation for a good pipes, along with his technical prowess, led him to start tinkering with and trying to improve their performance. Cano sold some of his modified pipes (along with some humidors that he built) to some friends and local tobacconists, which led Cano to create his own pipes and selling them on a small scale. After several years as a businessman, Cano decided in 1977 that he wanted to expand. He left his job at DuPont to form his own company, naming it after his initials: C.A.O. International, Inc. 1980 decided to Cano because he was also ready to put start selling cigars, which came contemporary with the introduction of Casa de Manuel. However, the first CAO cigars did not last long due. A lack of consistent quality along with a dying market, and Cano had to fall back on his pipe- and humidor business. But with cigarr boom in 1995, Ozgener began to sell cigars again, this time a Honduran cigar made by Nestor Plasencia which was simply known as C.A.O.
The rest is history.......