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Latest top tobacco news headlines
Cigar industry heating up again
By MITCH STACY, Associated Press Writer
Sat Oct 7, 10:47 AM ET
TAMPA, Fla. - For about five years in the 1990s, the cigar industry luxuriated in a wild sales boom when celebrities and trendy 20-somethings decided that puffing imported, hand-rolled stogies was The Next Big Thing.
The bubble burst when the supply of quality tobacco couldn't keep up with demand. The market became flooded with inferior but pricey cigars hastily rolled with lower grade tobacco, as many of the poseurs and neophytes moved on to something else.
In the years since, the industry has enjoyed a quiet, steady climb. The bad product is mostly gone, the market settled and refined tobacco growing methods make "sticks" from the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Honduras every bit as good as those storied but forbidden Cuban stogies.
Cigars aren't selling like it's 1997, but nobody is complaining. Last year's sales were still more than triple the early 1990s pre-boom numbers, even though new laws keep adding places where smokers can't light up.
"There's never been a better time to be a cigar connoisseur," said David "Cigar Dave" Zeplowitz, whose Tampa-based radio show celebrating good smokes is heard in more than 100 markets and on satellite stations. "The cigar industry is vibrant, it's healthy, even though there are more restrictions on peoples' right to enjoy a cigar than ever before."
Norman Sharp, president of the Washington-based Cigar Association of America, said it's hard to tell how many people smoke cigars because for many it's just an occasional hobby. The industry tracks trends by looking at how many cigars are imported into the United States each year.
At the height of the boom in 1997, imports peaked at 417.8 million cigars, nearly five times more than in 1993, according to the cigar association.
After dropping to 248 million in 1999, the numbers started another upward turn. In 2005, imports had climbed to 319.4 million cigars, with another slight bump expected this year.
"The increases are much more manageable than in the days of the boom when there was almost a craze aspect to it," Sharp said. "What we're seeing is much more manageable growth."
Cooper Gardiner, vice president of marketing for the General Cigar Co., the largest manufacturer of imported, handmade cigars in the United States, said there aren't huge numbers of new smokers like during the '90s, but he expects the industry to keep growing by a few percentage points a year if the tobacco supply can keep up.
"I think most people are happy," said Gardiner, whose company produces such popular brands as Cohiba, Macanudo, Punch and Hoyo de Monterrey. Another leader in the handmade cigar market, Fort Lauderdale-based Altadis USA, manufactures Don Diego, H. Upmann, Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta and other brands.
Zeplowitz said the cigar boom — he prefers to call it a "renaissance" — was so good for business because it introduced a lot of people to cigars who continued to smoke after others moved on.
Sharp said the boom also "spruced up" the cigar industry. Younger people were smoking, new makers entered the fray, a greater selection of sizes and shapes was introduced and packaging got more provocative, updating a fuddy-duddy image.
Profits generated during the boom allowed manufacturers to pay for new farming technology and other advances, resulting in superior cigars on the shelves today, said Gary Bahrenfus, manager of the landmark Edwards Pipe & Tobacco shop in Tampa.
"The product that we're smoking today is second to none," Bahrenfus said. "It's the very best tobacco that's ever been grown. It's got the most flavor, it's got the right texture. When you pick up a cigar, there's not a bad cigar."
Fine, hand-rolled cigars are readily available in the $3-to-$7 range, and "super premiums" and limited edition sticks can run $15 and up. Retailers say the average smoker of premium cigars lights up one to three a week.
The renewed interest in good smokes resonates in Tampa, whose early growth was spurred by the cigar industry when Cuban manufacturers began relocating here in the 1880s to escape political and labor unrest in their native land.
The east Tampa community — dubbed Ybor City after cigar magnate Vincent Martinez-Ybor — grew to more than 250 cigar factories with 30,000 employees. For 50 years the city was the cigar capital of the world.
Several notable cigar concerns still call Tampa home, including the Oliva Tobacco Co. — supplier of a good chunk of tobacco used in premium cigars sold around the world — and mail-order company Thompson Cigar, one of the largest cigar retailers in the United States.
Ybor City, now revitalized as an entertainment and tourist district, features specialty shops luring would-be smokers with artisans rolling cigars on the premises.
More cigars are being smoked these days, even as health officials warn against it. Cigar smokers who don't inhale are at a lower risk for lung cancer or heart disease but are still susceptible to cancers of the mouth, tongue and throat.
Zeplowitz, whose radio show also celebrates "cigar lifestyle" accouterments like good steaks, martinis and fine wines, doesn't want to hear it. He rails against the "pleasure police" and others who try to restrict his right to enjoy a good smoke.
"It's just like every other luxury product," he said. "People are enjoying them more than ever, but they are enjoying them in moderation."
US Supreme Court rejects Cuban cigar appeal
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
by Greg Stohr
WASHINGTON, USA (Bloomberg): The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to question Swedish Match AB's right to sell cigars in the U.S. under the Cohiba brand name, turning away an appeal by a company owned by the Cuban government.
Havana-based Cubatabaco asked the justices to consider arguments that its rights under U.S. trademark law were being violated. The high court made no comment, turning down the appeal as part of a list of orders released in Washington.
The rejection lets Swedish Match's General Cigar unit continue using a name it has been putting on its Dominican-made cigars in the U.S. for more than two decades. Stockholm-based Swedish Match bought General Cigar in 2000.
"Cubatabaco had no standing to challenge General Cigar's ownership of the Cohiba mark in the United States," General Cigar General Counsel Gerry Roerty said in a statement. General Cigar said it plans to focus on its bid to halt sales of what it considers "counterfeit Cohiba cigars," including others made in the Dominican Republic and sold over the Internet.
Cubatabaco said in a statement it will "continue to fight for the rights to the Cohiba trademark in the United States" through a pending application with the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which administers the ban on sale of goods from the communist nation.
Cubatabaco has registered the Cohiba trade name in 115 other countries. The name was first used for a cigar created decades ago for Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
In its lawsuit, Cubatabaco argued that the Cohiba name has meaning to U.S. consumers -- signaling a premium Cuban-made cigar -- even though the U.S. trade embargo bars the company from exporting its products to its northern neighbor.
A federal judge in New York barred General Cigar from using the Cohiba label in 2004, saying Cubatabaco gained rights to the name during a five-year period when General Cigar dropped the brand. The judge pointed to stories about the Cuban-made cigars in U.S. magazines, saying the publicity helped make Cohiba a "famous" trademark, owned by Cubatabaco.
The New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that ruling. The panel said that under federal trademark law, Cubatabaco couldn't acquire rights through publicity while the trade embargo was in place.
The rejection followed the advice of the Bush administration, which urged the Supreme Court not to hear the case.
The case is Empresa Cubana del Tabaco v. General Cigar, 05- 417.
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The enemies were on high alert and the blogosphere had a juicy news flash: Susan P. Kennedy, a prominent Democrat who will soon take over as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's chief of staff, was spotted having lunch with the chairman of the California Republican Party at a popular steakhouse here called Chops. . . .
Since she accepted the appointment last month, Ms. Kennedy, 45, has been excoriated by members of her party crying betrayal and by conservative Republicans lobbing attacks at her - and at the Republican governor - in the news media, in the blogosphere and on one Republican Web site devoted entirely to the subject, . . .
She officially starts her job on Jan. 1, but Mr. Schwarzenegger is already trying to persuade her to start smoking cigars, a habit that she gave up several years ago but that is a calling card for many in the governor's inner circle.
"I bet you any money, it will not take long, and Susan will be sitting out there puffing away," Mr. Schwarzenegger said, motioning toward his smoking tent in the Capitol courtyard.
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The analysis of Ringel and colleagues,1 who found that youths' cigar use is sensitive to price, highlights an important but overlooked issue in public health-the use of tobacco products other than cigarettes. However, since 1999 and 2000, when the data used by Ringel et al. were collected, there have been many changes that deserve discussion.
Cigar consumption in the United States increased by more than 28% between 2000 and 2004, . . .
These findings are both unexpected and worrisome. We should be cautious in declaring a tobacco control success when youths' initiation of cigarette smoking decreases; it is possible that they may still be initiating use of tobacco in another form. Given the decline in cigarette consumption, the steady growth in cigar consumption, the price inequity between cigars and cigarettes, and the innovative marketing of cigars, the threat to public health posed by cigars is real and deserves attention. To prevent youths from substituting one tobacco product for another, state and federal policy should be to impose equivalent taxes on all tobacco products.
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Cigar-Review.com, the recently launched, upstart online cigar lifestyle magazine today published their exclusive interview with Internet Cigar Industry Pioneer, Steve Saka.
Steve Saka is believed to have started one of the first cigar related web sites ever. He has... If you want to view the full text of this story, you must first purchase archive retrieval credits.
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Dozens of businesses have loaned DeLay their planes, from tobacco giants UST, RJ Reynolds and Philip Morris to energy companies like El Paso, Panda, Reliant and Dynegy.
R.J. Reynolds let DeLay use a company plane at least nine times since 1999, once joining Philip Morris in making jets available for a DeLay PAC fundraiser at a Puerto Rican resort in winter 2002. R.J. Reynolds spokesman David Howard said planes are loaned usually at lawmakers' request and are only done if jets aren't needed for company business.
"It's much more convenient as opposed to your regular commercial travel," Howard said, noting there is no need to go through airport security.
Public documents reviewed by The Associated Press tell the story: at least 48 visits to golf clubs and resorts with lush fairways; 100 flights aboard company planes; 200 stays at hotels, many world-class; and 500 meals at restaurants, some averaging nearly $200 for a dinner for two.
Instead of his personal expense, the meals and trips for DeLay and his associates were paid with donations collected by the campaign committees, political action committees and children's charity the Texas Republican created during his rise to the top of Congress. . . .
On R.J. Reynolds' planes, smoking is allowed and there are usually beverages and deli-style food. There's more leg room and the convenience of phones.
The smoking rule suits DeLay, who likes to chomp on cigars while golfing and reported spending at least $1,930 in PAC money on cigar-shop purchases. The cigars were reported to the Federal Election Commission as donor gifts.
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While a car might be a little too much for a business gift, a fine cigar is quite appropriate.
"For business gifts, the best choices are always the Davidoff or Zino Platinum cigars, because they have a reputation for being super high-quality and made by the best people," said David Kitchens, of Davidoff.
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SOME FOLKS say there's nothing like a good cigar, and since 1929, many of them have bought their smokes at the corner of East Market Street and U.S. Route 9 in Rhinebeck.
Now they can again, at what is now Rhinebeck Smoke Shoppe.
Owner Jon Urban, who said he's always wanted to have a shop in Rhinebeck, opened the tobacco business there in early November. It occupies the same storefront that was the United Smoke Shop until this past July.
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When Columbus and succeeding Spanish explorers came to the New World, they found Indians smoking long, thick twists of tobacco wrapped in palm leaves or corn husks. The Mayan word to describe the process of smoking was sikar. Hence, the Spanish gave the name cigarro to the rolled tobacco twist the Native Americans smoked. . . . .
Provo's Dispatch acknowledged the opening of the city's initial cigar factory in March 1891. . . .
Paul & Neibaur lost nearly everything in their cigar factory, although volunteers carried a considerable stock of cigars and tobacco into the street before the fire in the front part of the building became too hot.
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Police seized more than $100,000 worth of counterfeit Cuban cigars and packaging paraphernalia and arrested eight people who allegedly took part in the scheme that likely raked in millions of dollars.
The operation was the culmination of a six-month investigation, said Miami-Dade police.
Inexpensive cigars were allegedly labeled and repackaged to look like handmade premium Cuban cigars and then sold locally and around the country. The sale of Cuban cigars is prohibited in the United States, police said.
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But because cigar selection is such a personal choice, it may be wise to do some homework before you buy.
Cigars enjoyed a surge in popularity about a decade ago, and it hasn't entirely faded. It was during that time that an old schism in cigar manufacturing reappeared, and the dichotomy between pure tobacco cigars and those that are flavor-enhanced widened as sales of the latter steadily grew.
"Cigars are classed in two different categories, natural tobacco, which is the nonflavored tobacco, and your flavored cigars," said Bob Ochs, manager of John T's Unique Gifts in the Visalia Mall and the shop's resident expert on cigars.
Flavored cigars are, for the most part, a younger man's choice, with most of John T's sales going to men 18 to 35.
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If the ban on smoking in public areas that is circulating the state Legislature in Trenton becomes law, it will not affect tobacconists like Lindemuth's Main Street Cigars. But while state Senate Democratic spokesman Jim Manion said there will be no direct impact, does Lindemuth fear an indirect affect on shops like his?
Well, yeah, and it's a good thing.
"People," he says, "always find a place to smoke. Tobacco shops are going to be an alternative to standing out on your porch in 20-degree weather with a blanket on you."
Not everyone shares Lindemuth's optimism. Andy Kerstein absolutely expects a drain on business at his seven Smoker's Haven locations, including three in Atlantic County, even if it's hard to say how much.
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