Sunday, October 22 2006
California's Proposition 86, which could cripple the retail smokeshop business in the state, has crossed into losing territory according to a recent poll.
The California Association of Retail Tobacconists circulated the results of the latest monthly Datamar poll, completed on October 13 - about 3 1/2 weeks prior to the November 7 election date - that showed 86 losing with 42.4% in favor, 51.5% against and only 6.1% undecided.
That's an enormous shift in just a month. The September Datamar survey showed the measure still leading among 1,230 likely voters, 52.1% to 41.0%, but after a heavy television ad campaign against the measure by cigarette companies, the Cigar Association of America and anti-tax groups, the measure has lost almost eight points of support. The poll had a margin of error of 2.9%.
Jaws dropped in March when Habanos S.A. unveiled its plans for the Cohiba Behike, a giant 7 1/2-inch by 52-ring anniversary cigar, slated to sell in Elie Bleu-prepared humidors of 40 cigars each for 15,000 Euro, or about $18,808 at today's exchange rates. The Cubans said that only 100 humidors would be made, for a total of 4,000 cigars. At a cost of about $440 each, the Behike was widely surmised to be the world's most expensive current-production cigar. To see a short video about the Cohiba Behike, click here. (Note: it may take some time to load.)
Not even close.
The current champion comes from the Dominican Republic: Kaizad Hansotia's Gurkha "His Majesty's Reserve." It has a suggested retail price of $750 per cigar. "That's not a misprint; that's the retail price," said Hansotia. First shown to national retailers in 1998, these are now Dominican puros of 7 1/2-inches by 52-ring (same size as the Behike!) that are infused with Louis XIII Cognac.
About 100 boxes (20 cigars per box) are made annually and the distribution is discreet. But Hansotia, who offers a kaleidoscope of blends for his Gurkha, Symphony, Sherpa, Genghis Khan, Blend 101 and private-label lines isn't satisfied. "We have something new in development, and it will be even more than the His Majesty's Reserve," he said. "I will let you know."
In an address to the Economic Club of Toronto, Imperial Tobacco Canada Chief Executive Officer Benjamin Kemball urged government agencies to stop "demonizing" the tobacco industry. The company is urging constructive dialogue with the government on tobacco issues and, according to a poll commissioned by the company, 84% of Canadians agree that the two sides should be working together.
Kemball told the audience that, at least in Canada, the government takes 70% of the price charged for cigarettes as taxes (!) and that government entities collect $13 (Canadian) for every $1 in profit made by Imperial Tobacco Canada. In 2004, some $8.7 billion in taxes was collected by Canadian federal and provincial authorities from Imperial sales.
Short fillers: Alfons Meyer, a widely-respected tobacco expert who spent most of his 46 years in the trade with General Cigar, died at age 79 on October 11. He spent five years learning about tobacco in Cuba in the 1950s before managing General Cigar's warehouse there beginning in 1961. He went on to oversee the company's sorting and processing operations in Puerto Rico and later relocated to the New York area where he acted as the company's chief tobacco buyer until his retirement in 2001 . . . In the first of three sets of criminal trials in U.S. Federal Court concerning counterfeiting of cigars, a guilty verdict was returned against defendant Juan Penton last Friday. The case took only four days, including jury deliberations. Penton was charged with six counts of trafficking in counterfeit goods for making boxes to hold fake cigars which he said at trial were to be sold as "novelty gifts." He was convicted on three counts and U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno dismissed the three other counts according to a report in the Miami Herald . . . find our latest tasting review, of the hot Padilla line-up, in our News & Views archives.
- Rich Perelman in Los Angeles
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Heard in the Humidor is a publication of Perelman, Pioneer & Company. Reprinted by permission.
Copyright 2006; All rights reserved.
