The freedom to smoke without harassment!
Freedom Cigars & Tobacco officially opened it’s doors as a new business in 2019. But, not before a long tenure of serving Central PA’s tobacco needs for well over a decade.
The founder, Therina, had been working as an expert in the cigar and tobacco industry since 1997, in a local tobacco shop.
In 2007, Therina decided to use her expertise in tobacco products and cigars to open her own business. Originally opening as a ‘Custom Blends’ franchisee, Therina, along with her husband, Vince, quickly grew their small Shewsbury franchise into the leader of providing the finest in cigar and tobacco products in all of Southern Pennsylvania. They then decided in 2011 to open a second location in Hanover. Then in 2014, along with her sister and mother, Therina also opened a third Custom Blends franchise location in Etters. By then, the franchised stores were known as Planet RYO.
As the cigar community Therina had built over the years grew even bigger, she decided she needed more space to serve her customers than what her small shop in Shrewsbury provided, so she moved her store just a few minutes down the road to New Freedom.
By 2019, Therina knew that she was able to provide better customer service to and had more personable relationships with her customer and clientele base than the corporation through which she owned franchises. She knew if she wanted to continue delivering the same quality service to her customer base that she had for over two decades, she would need to separate from the corporation through which she owned franchises, and would have to open up a company all her own, in which no one could dictate to her how to interact and market to her customer base that she had worked so hard to build.
And so, in 2019, Freedom Cigars & Tobacco was born. And so was “the FREEDOM to SMOKE without HARASSMENT.”
Therina has been a Certified Tobacconist since 2010. She operates her new tobacco company alongside her husband Vince in New Freedom and Hanover, and her mother and sister, in Etters at the same locations.