Cigars, Cigar Information and where to find Premium Cigars, Discounted Cigars and even Cheap Cigars - SHOWTIME FOR SWISHER SWEETS, PHILLIES AND WHITE OWL

SHOWTIME FOR SWISHER SWEETS, PHILLIES AND WHITE OWL

SHOWTIME FOR SWISHER SWEETS, PHILLIES AND WHITE OWL

Value-priced handmades looking for a share of the drugstore market at next week’s NATO Expo

Los Angeles, March 25 – The largest-selling brands in the cigar industry will be on display to the trade next week in Las Vegas, as the National Association of Tobacco Outlets (NATO) Conference and Exposition convenes on March 29.

The featured brands?

Try Swisher Sweets, Phillies and White Owl for starters. This is the show for mass-market brands, which outsell handmade, premium cigars by a ratio of more than 15:1!

That’s right . . . 15 to 1.

Figures compiled by the Cigar Association of America estimated that in 2004, some 4.93 billion large cigars were smoked, which includes all sizes larger than cigarillos. Of that total, only a little more than 300 million are handmade premiums, leaving about 4.6 billion of the 4.93 billion total as machine-made.

That’s a lot of cigars, even if they’re machine-made.

The NATO show, annually held in Las Vegas, runs for three days, one of which is devoted to seminars. The two days of floor exhibits is two days less than the higher profile Retail Tobacco Dealers of America (RTDA) show held during the summer.

Thus, the NATO show has grown nicely, now featuring some 249 exhibitors and 400-plus booths in the Las Vegas Convention Center. That’s only a fraction of the RTDA’s 800 exhibitors and more than 1,600 booth spaces, but manufacturers and distributors who only showed up at the RTDA are now starting to attend both.

Altadis USA, General Cigar, Davidoff, J.C. Newman and the Tabacalera Perdomo will all be there, along with the top boutique brand distributors such as Bahia Cigars, Beach Cigar Group (Gurkha), Cusano Cigars, Felipe Gregorio, Indian Tabac, Torano Cigars and others.

As the “sweet spot” of the local smokeshop has moved to lower-priced cigars for everyday use, companies like JM Tobacco have found success with their handmade “JM’s Dominican” line. Made by hand from long-filler tobacco in their own factory in the Dominican Republic, these cigars retail for between $1-2 each depending on size. At that price, it’s possible to convert some machine-made smokers to handmade cigars. And that’s what this show is all about.

We’ll have daily coverage from Las Vegas next week, with an eye out for new introductions, bargains and the latest from the show floor rumor mill.

From the Front Lines of the Tax Revolt:
Activist Jan Esler-Rowe, co-owner of Portland’s Cascade Cigar in Oregon, has updated her smoker’s tax revolt web site, now to be found at SmokersTaxRevolt.com.

It aims to hit states where it hurts, by urging smokers to buy brands which are not included in the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) and therefore feed no money to the states.

While applicable more to cigarettes than cigars, the site makes the point that we – as users of a completely legal product – are, as put so well by the late Peter Finch as news anchor Howard Beale in the 1976 landmark film “Network”:

”I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!”

Our future is in our own hands. Thanks to Jan for leading the fight in Oregon, one of the most obnoxious states in the country for smokers. Even with smoking among adults down to 20.9% in the last survey in 2003, there are a half-dozen anti-tobacco bills in the legislature, including one from Rep. Michael Kesten to ban smoking within 100 feet of entrances to public places. It was defeated twice previously and probably will be again, but Kesten doesn’t care.

“I know it’s going way too far,” said state Senator Ginny Burdick (D-Portland) to the state’s leading newspaper, The Oregonian. “But I like to have it there for people to look at.”

Exhibit A for government at its worst.

Everything at Once with our March Combo Offer!
Here’s our special for the month of March, offering everything we have in one big package at 28% off! You get (drum roll . . .):

• A one-year subscription to our value-packed CigarWire and

• A copy of our 600-page Perelman’s Pocket Cyclopedia of Cigars for 2005 and

• A copy of our third edition Perelman’s Pocket Cyclopedia of Havana Cigars!

That’s normally a $54.90 value with shipping, but we’re offering all of this for a special, discounted price of just $39.99 through the end of this month only.

Your subscription will also include our “Week in Review” newsletter sent each Thursday with a summary of our top stories of the week!
~ Rich Perelman

Bookmark

Email This

Comments (0) add comment