Thursday, April 06 2006
Los Angeles - "Live Free or Die" is the New Hampshire motto and the state showed its independence again on April 6, when the state Senate defeated a proposed smoking ban in bars and restaurants by one vote, 12-11.
After passing the lower house easily, the measure ran into opposition based not on health, but on individual freedom and the preservation of personal choice. Senator Carl Johnson told the New York Times, "I'm surprised that a lot of the 'Live Free or Diers' who usually confront us with statements like 'stay out of our life' or 'we don't need more legislation' were the ones asking us to ban smoking."
So far, 14 states and dozens of municipalities have adopted smoking restrictions of some sort, but some are already under fire (ha!). Business groups, mostly representing bars and restaurants, have banded together in Colorado and New Jersey to challenge new smoking bans in those states on the basis of equal protection guaranteed in the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution. In both of those states, the smoking ban has exceptions for casinos but not in bars or restaurants, putting those businesses at a competitive disadvantage in drawing business from smokers.
Gran Habano has become a player in the lower-priced premium cigar category, even though the brand was only introduced in 2003. How did they do it?
The distributor, STC Cigar Manufacturing of Miami, Florida, had a head start thanks to its production of private-label cigars for about seven years prior to debuting Gran Habano. That gave the brand an advantage as it was sold by a company already well known to tobacconists all across the U.S. In addition, the brand showcased a unique approach with only four popular sizes but three blends in each: a mild Connecticut (No. 1), a medium-bodied Habano (No. 3) and full-bodied Corojo (No. 5), all made in Honduras and retailing between $3.35 and $4.40 before local taxes. That positioning, plus nice packaging has helped Gran Habano near sales of three million cigars a year, a remarkable achievement in an already-saturated U.S. cigar market!
Market research information available at the NATO trade show indicated that - according to A.C. Nielsen - among flavored cigars, the top seller is berry-flavored cigars with 41% of the market, with peach at 19%, chocolate at 11%, apple at 6% and grape at 5%.
Short fillers: Only two men are responsible for the manufacture of the enormous 18-inch-long Puros Indios "Chief": Nelson Acuña and Juan de Jesus Palma, who can each make about 75 of these giants a day at the Puros Indios factory in Danli, Honduras . . . Look for a 90th anniversary cigar from Carlos Toraño by mid-year, possibly the company's first puro, with all-Nicaraguan tobacco.
- Rich Perelman
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Heard in the Humidor is a publication of Perelman, Pioneer & Company.
Copyright 2006; All rights reserved.
