Sunday, September 28 2008
The economy isn't the best, but cigar import figures show that there is still strong demand for premium cigars in the U.S.
The newest statistics, compiled by the Cigar Association of America from U.S. Customs Service data, showed that 26.76 million premium cigars were imported into the U.S. in July of 2008, down about 13 percent from 2007. However, the 2007 figures also includes an unknown number of little cigars, so the two years are not directly comparable.
Even so, for the first seven months of the year, U.S. premium cigar imports totaled 142.98 million, down a little over 16 percent from 2008. In comparing the pace of imports, after seven months in 2007, some 51.2 percent of all imports for the year had been counted. By that measure, premium cigar imports for 2008 can be projected at 279.36 million, which would be the lowest figure since way back in . . . 2003 and would be the sixth-highest import total on record. The breakdown of the import report shows:
=> The Dominican Republic continues as the dominant force on the American market. For July, 12.34 million premium cigars were imported, down 22 percent from July of 2007, but still a third more cigars than exported by second-place Honduras. For the first seven months of 2008, the Dominican has exported 58.36 million premium cigars to the U.S., a considerable drop from the 92.10 million last year and the principal difference in the overall import drop.
=> Honduran cigar exports continued strong and will likely rise for the fifth straight year. In July, some 8.27 million premium cigars came into the U.S., a 4.2 percent increase over July of 2007. For January-July 2008, the Honduran total is up by 13.3 percent to 45.85 million.
=> Nicaraguan cigar imports to the U.S. were down a little in July as against 2007, but the overall total is up for the year-to-date. Some 5.94 million premium cigars came into the U.S. in July, down 14 percent from 2007, but for the first seven months of 2008, Nicaraguan cigar imports into the U.S. were up by 1.6 percent at 37.47 million.
=> Small import totals were also recorded for Mexico and Philippines for July 2008. For the year, 627,000 Mexican cigars have been imported for fourth place overall with the Philippines fifth at 386,000.
While premium cigar imports are down a bit, overall U.S. cigar imports are zooming!
=> Machine-made cigars are up a reported 50.4 percent for 2008 to 450.08 million for the first seven months of the year compared to 2007. There is a question about 119 million cigars imported from Colombia; if these are subtracted as likely little cigars, machine-made large cigars are still up by 10.7 percent so far in 2008.
=> Little cigars are also up for the year at 227.75 million, not including the Colombian imports, ahead of 2007 for the same time period by 14.6 percent. If the Columbian cigars are added in, little cigar totals are up by 74.4% for the year to date.
Overall, there were 821.81 million cigars of all types imported into the U.S. from January to July, a strong 22.8 percent ahead of the same time period in 2007. It's worth noting that these strong figures do not include rising production and sales reported at U.S. makers like John Middleton, Inc., now a unit of Altria Corporation, or at machine-made giant Swisher International.
>> When your headquarters is in Music City – Nashville, Tennessee – it's expected that you'll be on tour. For Jon Huber, C.A.O.'s peripatetic Director of Lifestyle Marketing, that means the 2008 C.A.O. "Rock N Rolled Tour" is getting set to start.
Huber will be appearing in nine cities during the month of October to promote C.A.O. in general, but especially the company's new Lx2 cigar, which features two types of ligero leaves in the blend.
"The Rock & Roll 'attitude,' if you will, has always been part and parcel to the CAO brand image," said Huber. "We believe the whole concept of the retail tobacconist in-store event is growing tired and stale, and we want to interject some fun back into the equation. The 'Rock N Rolled' tour idea was born over after-hour drinks and cigars one night with our national sales manager, Frank Kapp. We basically played off the recent 'CAO Rock N Rolled' tattoo that I had done in May . . .
"We just want to bring a little 'rock' to the genre of hand-'rolled' cigars."
The tour will start in Bellevue, Kentucky on October 7 at The Party Source and conclude on October 30 in Londonderry, New Hampshire at Twins Smokeshop. Other events will be posted as confirmed on C.A.O.'s Web site.
Each event will feature special offers on C.A.O. cigars, a preview of the soon-to-be-released Lx2 and opportunities to obtain limited-edition C.A.O. "Rock & Rolled" accessories, including an official C.A.O. guitar!
Short fillers: In a trading update on September 24, Imperial Tobacco chief executive Gareth Davis announced that the company's sales and profits were "in line" with management's expectations as its fiscal year was set to close on September 30. He also noted that the continuing integration of Altadis was going well enough to meet the forecast savings through operating synergies. He did say that the premium cigar sector, in which Imperial (through Altadis) has a leading position in France, Spain and the U.S., saw a "softening" of sales over the past six months, but he said Imperial was gaining market share at the end of its competitors. The problem, he noted, is directly tied to smoking bans: "There is no such thing as [taking time for] a quick Montecristo." . . . find our latest tasting review, of new cigars that were the stars of the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association convention & trade show, in our News & Views archives for September 26.
- Rich Perelman in Los Angeles
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Reprinted by permission. "Heard in the Humidor" is a publication of Perelman, Pioneer & Company. Copyright 2008; All rights reserved.
