Cigar Weekly

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Los Angeles - Prior to a more thorough report in September, Britain's Imperial Tobacco reported that its 2008 results "remains in line with management's expectations. The integration of Altadis is proceeding in line with our plans and the financial position of the Group also remains in accordance with our expectations."
Now the world's largest cigar company, Imperial's report on its cigar section was brief, but to the point:

"Cigar volumes in the USA and Europe continue to be impacted by restrictions on smoking in public places and economic slowdown, particularly in the premium segment.

"However, in the USA, our main natural wrapper brands of Dutch Masters and Backwoods are performing strongly as a result of new variant launches.

"In Spain, the mini cigar market has grown strongly and we gained share in this segment with our Farias and Ducados brands performing well.

"In France, our market share is down slightly with declines in the premium segment being mainly offset by gains in the medium cigar segment. Our leading brand, Fleur de Savane, continues to grow volumes."

The short note, presented without financials, reinforces the importance of the machine-made sector in Imperial's portfolio, which includes Antonio y Cleopatra, El Producto, Hav-A-Tampa, Muriel, Phillies and many others. The new "variants" include additional flavors - especially for Backwoods and the introduction of more shapes of Dutch Masters and Phillies in tubes over the past year.

In terms of total volume, in the last detailed report filed by Altadis, S.A. for the nine months ended September 30, 2008, machine-made cigars with natural leaf wrappers (notably Dutch Masters) accounted for 43.6% by revenue and 49.4% by volume of all Altadis cigar sales. Premium cigars, including Altadis U.S.A. and the half-ownership of Habanos, S.A., accounted for 27.5% of revenues but only 5.9% of the volume. Other cigars - machine-mades and little cigars - were responsible for 18.6% of all cigar revenues and 44.6% of the volume.

>> "What's the matter with Chicago" reads the headline in the August/September issue of the libertarian-oriented Reason magazine, in front of its story on the "worst nanny-state cities in America."

Reason's editors ranked the 35 largest metropolitan areas in the United States from best to worst in terms of their attitudes on eight major areas, including alcohol, drugs, gambling, food, guns, sex, transportation and tobacco. As the introduction to the rankings notes, "Two decades of healthy economies and dropping crime rates have given many city councils the luxury of worrying about less urgent issues, from the last wisps of second-hand smoke to the discomfort of fatted geese. . . . It may be easier to smoke a joint today than it was 20 years ago (except in New York City), but it's getting much more difficult to enjoy a legal cigarette.:

In terms of overall ranking, Chicago was the worst city in the survey, finishing in the bottom half of all eight categories. The rest of the worst ten includes 2. Seattle; 3. New York; 4. Boston; 5. El Paso; 6. San Diego; 7. Nashville; 8. Houston; 9. Los Angeles and 10. Charlotte. The least nanny-state cities according to the survey were Las Vegas, Miami, Denver, Louisville and Kansas City.

In the tobacco category, the tests included the amount of excise tax on cigarettes and smoking restrictions, often based on state rather than local restrictions; the bottom ten included: 1. Seattle; 2. Chicago; 3. (tie) Austin and El Paso; 5. New York; 6. San Francisco; 7. Phoenix; 8. Boston; 9. (tie), Los Angeles, Oakland, San Diego, San Jose.

>> Mike Byelick, the owner of MD Cigars in Yuma, Arizona wanted to create a high-quality, mid-market blend that would retail at about $7 each, but that he could sell for less, perhaps $4-5. Thus, the Dea cigar was born.

Byelick notes that "the trend for super strong cigars, I think, is tough for people like me who like loads of flavor, but not a powerhouse cigar that often gets to your stomach. I call it medium-bodied; strong-cigar smokers may call it mild, but its more medium to me."

He created the blend in concert with Robert Spoden's Bucanero Cigars and Dea - the Italian word for goddess - is made in Nicaragua. Wrapped in a Nicaraguan-grown Rosado wrapper, the interior leaves are from Costa Rica and Honduras with a Sumatra-seed binder from Ecuador. The Dea line is made in three ultra-popular shapes: Churchill (7 inches by 48 ring), Robusto (5 x 50) and Torpedo (6 x 52). A Costa Rican-grown maduro-wrapped version to be called the "Dea Double Maduro" is also on the way.

Best of all is the price: from $4.53 to $4.83 each, they're packed in bundles of 20 that run from $73.60 to $78.40 not including local sales and tobacco taxes.