Cigars, Cigar Information and where to find Premium Cigars, Discounted Cigars and even Cheap Cigars - WANT TO BE A CIGAR CRITIC? HERE’S YOUR CHANCE!

WANT TO BE A CIGAR CRITIC? HERE’S YOUR CHANCE!

WANT TO BE A CIGAR CRITIC? HERE’S YOUR CHANCE!

Plus: Altadis cigar sales up smartly in first half of 2005

Los Angeles, September 1 – Everyone wants to be a critic, right? So it is with cigars, where everyone has a different take on what’s good and what’s bad.

Capitalizing on this, Two Guys Smoke Shop of Salem, New Hampshire is offering a 30-cigar taste-off for $99.99. It’s a little complicated, but here goes:

• You get 16 cigars to try, with bands labeled 1-16 for the first taste-off. Cigar no. 1 will be compared against Cigar no. 2 and so on, with the "winners" advancing in this single-elimination-style "tournament." Your results must reach Two Guys by October 31.

• In November, the eight "winners" will be sent out, again to be smoked in order, one against another, from Cigar no. 17 to Cigar no. 24. Results must be in by November 30.

• At the start of December, contestants will receive the "final four" cigars with results due in by December 14.

• In mid-December, the final two cigars will be sent with results due by Friday, December 30, 2005.

The winners will be announced by mail on January 2, 2006. In the meantime, Dave Garofalo and his team at Two Guys will have to get a few more guys with green eye shades to count up the results.

They’ll take time out, though, to enjoy Two Guys’ 20th Anniversary Party on October 6. A total of 400 tickets are being sold and there will be 400 door prizes, so everyone wins something! The top prize is a Two Guys-themed Hummer H2!

Katrina and the Waves hit Cuba on the way to The Big Easy:
Before razing parts of Biloxi, Mississippi and flooding New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina also pounded western Cuba, including the Pinar del Rio region where the country’s prime tobacco fields are located.

According to news reports from the region, some 8,000 residents of the Pinar del Rio province were evacuated. The coastal city of Surgidero de Batabano, located south of Havana, was reported to be more than 90% under water.

The storm system left heavy rains, but there are no reports of damage (that doesn’t mean there isn’t any, just that there are no reports). Tobacco crop planting is not immediately threatened, since it usually does not begin until the end of October or early November.

Related to Hurricane Katrina, our thoughts and prayers go to Bob Winston and his colleagues at New Orleans-based Payless Cigars. We hope you are safe and dry.

Altadis sailing smoothly in first half of 2005:
The French-Spanish tobacco giant reported smart gains in the first half of the year, with overall sales up by a startling 13.9% in euros with a remarkable 17.7% gain in the second quarter as against the 2004 figures.

The cigar division was again a star for the company, with the sales totaling 414 million (about $511 million U.S.) in the first six months of 2005. U.S. consumption was about 54% of this total (roughly $273.3 million U.S.), with European sales of non-Havana cigars comprising 18% (about $92 million) and Havana cigars about 15% (about $76.5 million). Highly profitable, the cigar division’s earnings before taxes and depreciation (EBITDA) rose to 25.9% of sales volume or about $133.2 million so far this year.

Altadis highlighted the company’s expansion in sales of machine-made cigars with natural wrappers, especially Dutch Masters and Backwoods, and continued strong sales of handmade cigars. So far this year, Altadis’s U.S. cigar sales are up by 11.3% in terms of total revenue in U.S. currency.

Sales of Cuban cigars – please remember that Altadis owns 50% of the Corporacion Habanos, the distribution agent for Cuban cigars worldwide – gained 17.9% in local currencies over a year ago! Sales were strong on Britain, Germany and Belgium and improving in emerging markets like China and Russia. The strategy continues to focus on high-end, limited-production products like the Edicion Limitada and Seleccion Reserva series to drive sales at the high-priced end of the market and expansion of the Mini-Cubanos offerings at the low end. Sales volume was about $76.5 million for the first half of the year.

While an excellent performer for Altadis, the cigar division still hasn’t caught up with cigarettes, which returned profit margins (before taxes and depreciation) of 34.3%, considered to be somewhat down. The Altadis financial report notes that "it is the Company’s challenge to raise it back."

Want your own White House? It’s a Classic!
Altadis USA has released details of the first of its four American Heritage series giant humidors, The White House, which will come with multiple sizes of Montecristo Classic or Montecristo White cigars.

Created by Andrew Kossin’s Accent Imports Int’l exclusively for Altadis, The White House weighs 35 pounds (before the shipping container) and takes up two and half square feet on a table at 25 inches wide, 14 inches deep and 13 inches tall!

Only 500 were made, with a suggested retail price of $800 (not including cigars). Inquire with your retailer now if you’re interested; The White House will ship in October.

The other humidors in the series will include the Lincoln Memorial, shipping in February 2006, the Jefferson Memorial, in May 2006 and the U.S. Capitol, next summer. Suggested retail prices of these pieces (without cigars) is estimated in the $900 range.

No word yet on whether Altadis will have a follow-up sale on tables or mantelpieces to support these works of art . . . maybe at the next RTDA?
~ Rich Perelman

Bookmark

Email This

Comments (0) add comment