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NEW SHAPES AND SIZES FOR GENERAL CIGAR

Plus: A Churchill humidor on auction next week in London!

Los Angeles, May 31 – There’s no off-season at General Cigar.

Although the Retail Tobacco Dealers of America show in Houston isn’t far away, General introduced five new sizes over five different brands and added yet another promotional program to its already crowded calendar:

• The Macanudo Gold Label line, perhaps the most delicate and mildest of the entire Macanudo line, will be extended with the familiar Hampton Court size in June. Offered in aluminum tubes, this 5 1/2-inch by 42-ring corona will be offered in boxes of 25 and retail for $6.50 per cigar, before any local tobacco taxes. It will start shipping in June.

• The Macanudo Maduro line has added a “Crystal” size of 5 1/2 inches and 50 ring gauge, packed in a glass tube. Now shipping to stores, the Crystals are offered in the familiar eight-count boxes with a suggested retail price of $6.80 each.

• In the Partagas family, the under-appreciated Black Label line adds a plumped-up Corona at 5 1/2 inches and 45 ring gauge. Also currently shipping, this size is offered in boxes of 20 and is priced at $5.50 each.

• The Partagas Spanish Rosado line adds the Gigante, a fat toro of six inches in length and 60 ring gauge. It’s slated to start shipping soon and will be offered in boxes of 25 or singly for $6.50 each.

• The Cohiba Black line has been a hit and the line is being expanded with a small cigar, the Pequeno (4 1/8 inches by 36 ring gauge). It’s offered in tins of six at a suggested retail price of $14.30 per tin.

Limited allocations of the not-always-available Cohiba XV and Macanudo Vintage 2000 lines are also being shipped to stores.

In addition, General’s blizzard of in-store promotions is being expanded. Already underway in stores across the nation are the La Gloria Cubana Domino events, Partagas Quality Tour, Partagas Roulette, Punch Photo Shoot, Punch Ambassador and Punch Poker events. Now General is reviving its Macanudo Factory Ambassador events with five Ambassadors instead of the original two getting set to spread out across the country.

A completely new event, Bolivar Rolling, is just beginning its U.S. route. It marks a new promotional push for the full-bodied Bolivar line introduced in mid-2005 and places individual rollers in retail stores. Attendees can get a fresh-rolled Bolivar right from the roller’s desk.

General also has a series of three-packs being readied for retail featuring Partagas (three blends), Punch (three sizes of Gran Puro), Sancho Panza (three blends), La Gloria Cubana (three sizes), Helix (including natural and maduro-wrapped versions) and the flavored Helix Remix (three sizes).

That’s already quite a bit, but there will no doubt be more introductions at the RTDA in Houston. Hello Winston!
A cabinet-style humidor presented to Winston Churchill upon his inaugural election to the House of Commons in 1900 is being auctioned at Christie’s in London on June 5.

The cabinet is meant to sit on a table and is made of rosewood and sycamore. The front opens from the top to reveal four slide-out trays with grooves for cigars about five inches deep. There is an engraved plate on the top of the box which reads: “Presented to Mr. W. S. Churchill on being elected Member of Parliament for Oldham, 1st October 1900.”

It’s part of the “Fine Printed Books & Manuscripts” auction that Christie’s will hold at its South Kensington site in London. The pre-sale estimate for the Churchill humidor is £1,000-1,500 or about $1,976 to $2,965 U.S., not including the 17.5% buyer’s premium.

Hammer time:
We almost forgot to note the strong sale prices for a CigarAuctioneer.com auction for Padron Serie 1926 No. 2 torpedoes that ended last week.

A box of 24 of these 5 1/2-inch by 52-ring cigars was split up and offered singly with the opening bid at $1. The suggested retail for these cigars is $16 each, but none of the 24 went that low.

Instead, 13 different bidders bought the 24 cigars at prices which ranged from a low of $19.00 each to a high of $48.50! The biggest individual spender was one bidder who bought six of the cigars at six different prices totaling $118.67, an average of $19.78 each. The total take for the box of 24 was $503.69, a 31.1% premium on the box price of $383.95.

Banding together for Father’s Day:
If you have some cigars you’d like to customize for Father’s Day and are looking for custom bands alone – rather than a box of cigars with custom bands on them – My Cigar Labels can help.

Now in its tenth year, My Cigar Labels offers custom labels using their existing designs or a specially-created band for as little as $49.95 for 100 bands. The company has a special on now for Father’s Day using a special design for 2007 at just $29.95 for 100 bands.

The turnaround is fairly quick, with orders shipped less than a week after approval of a proof. The entire process can be completed over the Internet, or customers can speak with a designer who will make a band to their specifications.

What says love more than a tray of 100 “The Edge” Toros by Rocky Patel with a personalized Father’s Day band on these usually unbanded cigars?
~ Rich Perelman

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