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ALTADIS GETTING MOLDY

Plus: British tabloids getting spicy over Posh and cigars

Los Angeles, August 29 – Since its days as Consolidated Cigar Corporation, the company which is now Altadis USA has had a long reputation for respecting the traditions of the cigar industry.

Critics will call their bent “conservative” but it’s working in their favor with some historically-based packaging getting ready to ship to retailers nationwide in September.

Especially entertaining are the new “wood mold” sets which offer packages of ten cigars encased in a genuine mold as used in the Altadis factories to shape the “bunch” – the filler and binder of a cigar – before the wrapper is added. The only thing missing is the press, a giant clamping system which presses the molds together to give the bunches the proper shape before the wrappers are rolled on (undoubtedly coming next year!).

The Altadis USA wood molds are cleverly offered with ten cigars inside – all already made and sealed in cellophane, so you don’t have to roll the wrapper on yourself – in a choice of six different brands, each in two sizes:

• Dominican molds sets are available for H. Upmann Vintage Cameroon, Montecristo White and Romeo y Julieta and bear the stamp of the Tabacalera de Garcia. All three are offered in both robusto (5 inches by 52 ring) and toro (6 inches by 54 ring) sizes with varying prices by brand: H. Upmann Vintage Cameroon for $50 (robusto) and $55 (toro); Montecristo White for $85 and $90 (it is Montecristo, after all) and $65 and $70 for the Romeo y Julieta Aniversarios.

• Honduran mold sets are much less expensive and are offered for Gispert, Maria Guerrero and Saint Luis Rey, all stamped for La Flor de Copan, the Altadis factory in Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras. All three have sets in robusto (5 x 50 or 5 x 54) and toro (6 x 54 or 6 x 56) sizes, ranging in price from $29.00 (robusto) and $31.50 (toro) for Gispert and Saint Luis Rey to $55 and $60 for Maria Guerrero.

AltadisUSA also expanded its historical packaging line with what is probably the first presentation of Romeo y Julieta in glass jars. Altadis had limited success with the H. Upmann Vintage Cameroon jar line last year, but is trying Romeo y Julieta jars with the original blend 1875 line (which we have an A+ grade to last week!).

(We are aware of Havana-made H. Upmann, Hoyo de Monterrey, La Corona, Partagas and Punch cigars in glass jars and Cohiba, Cuaba, Montecristo, Partagas and Ramon Allones cigars in porcelain jars, but not Romeo y Julieta.)

Another industry first is that all of the cigars in the Romeo y Julieta jars are packed in aluminum tubes, so you can store the cigars separately from the jar immediately and not worry about keeping the cigars fresh! Six different sizes of Romeo 1875s are available, with 20-25 cigars per jar. Retail prices range from $126 to $162 per jar, before local tobacco taxes.

The stunning quality of these items is a tribute to Altadis USA’s development team, as well as their Hong Kong-based designers, Terra Firma Ceramics’ Angus Miller and art director Lluis Tarrida (pictured left and right, above at the RTDA with the Romeo y Julieta Aniversario wood mold).

Tabloids get spicy over Posh and cigars:
It doesn’t take much for the British tabloid press to get excited about celebrities of any kind, but they get bonkers when it concerns home-grown A-listers like soccer star David Beckham and his wife Victoria, known in her performing days as “Posh Spice.”

The tabs and Internet celebrity sites in the U.K. were working overtime last week when Victoria Beckham was spied smoking a cigar at a party given by Italian fashion designer Roberto Cavalli on a yacht off Sardinia. The event celebrated, among other things, Beckham’s agreement to be the primary model to advertise Cavalli’s upcoming line for women. Also on the yacht was former heavyweight champion, all-time heavyweight bad boy and now prospective porn star Mike Tyson.

According to various reports, it seems that the Beckhams have taken up cigars as a pastime and are regular customers at an “exclusive” London tobacconist.

Tobacco tax policy at the tipping point?
As taxes on cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco and other tobacco products go up and up, researchers are beginning to warn of the consequences.

Richard E. Wagner, an economist at George Mason University, notes that where tobacco taxes are significantly higher than easily alternative sources, consumers go elsewhere.

The study, cited by CNN in a recent article, noted that “In 1970, the highest tax levied by a state was 18 cents a pack (88 cents after adjusting for inflation) versus today’s high of $2.46 a pack. Since then, the number of smokers in the United States has declined from 37.4 percent to 22.5 percent.”

However, the traditional rule that a 10% rise in the price of cigarettes will decrease consumption by four percent, is being challenged by the rise in interstate sales and illegal purchases of cigarettes smuggled from other jurisdictions.

In England, a Business Europe report noted that 20% of London-area corner shopkeepers have considered closing their stores because of sales lost to tobacco smuggling. More than a third – 35% – claimed to be aware of counterfeit cigarettes being sold, sometimes from the trunk of a car, as well as in pubs and nightclubs.

Interestingly, shopkeepers told pollsters that reducing taxes would help. “”Respondents overwhelmingly agreed, 74%, that the best way to combat the burgeoning illegal trade is for the government to reduce or freeze taxes.

“‘This would bring tax levels more in line with the EU, eradicating the huge price difference between tobacco here and that in mainland Europe, and so remove the incentive for smugglers to carry out their crime in the UK.’ [Audrey] Wales [spokesman for the pollsters] said.”

The impact on the U.S. is less clear. Credit card companies have stopped accepting cigarette purchases and some delivery services are refusing to ship cigarettes. This only benefits the U.S. Postal Service, which is already straining the delivery the mail, can accept your debit card to pay for purchases and has said it has no way (or interest) to check who is sending what to whom.

However, so-called “gray market” sales – purchased made at retail in other jurisdictions – are going to increase over time, as will sales from and at Indian reservations. And at some point, smokers will get angry and the issue will become more contested on the political level.

Consider: even in anti-smoking California, the number of smokers in the state is still greater than the number of votes cast to elect current governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
~ Rich Perelman

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