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HEARD IN THE HUMIDOR
Highlights of the week in cigars and smoking from
For the week of October 20 - 24, 2008
That’s Oettinger Davidoff Group chief Reto Cina on the acquisition of Camacho, which was effective as of October 1, but which was not formally announced until October 13. Financial terms were not announced, and are not likely to be seen publicly, since Oettinger Davidoff is privately held.
But Davidoff, which had $1.12 billion in worldwide sales last year (converted from Swiss Francs), now adds ten Honduran-made brand groups to its roster of all-Dominican-made lines: Baccarat "The Game" Havana, Camacho, Deluxe, Don Felo, Don Macho, El Legend-Ario, La Fontana, National Brand, The Repeater and an unbanded (nude) bundle line. The formal announcement noted that Camacho’s biggest-selling single size of the Baccarat Rothschild, a robusto-sized cigar.
No changes are planned for the Camacho operation, which will retain all of its 561 employees, all but 27 of whom work in the Danli, Honduras production facility. Julio Eiroa, 71, will retire from the day-to-day management of the business and return to his first love, which is growing tobacco. Christian Eiroa, 36, will head the Camacho group into the future.
"It offers us a platform so we can grow a lot more aggressively," he said. "We thought it was the right opportunity to be able to perpetuate the life of our brand. Now Camacho will become one of the top ten brands in the world."
Certainly, the opportunity for sales in new venues such as duty-free shops will become available to Camacho, as Davidoff products already dominate humidors in the U.S. and have a steady presence overseas. And Davidoff has 200 company-owned sales locations and 56 Davidoff stores worldwide that will soon be featuring Camacho cigars. Oettinger Davidoff reported that it sold 30.8 million cigars worldwide in 2007.
>> It’s only the Town Council of small Miami Lakes, Florida, but Nick Perdomo triumphed in a hotly-contested race for Seat 1 held on October 7. Perdomo received 1,794 votes of 4,583 cast (39.4%) to win the seat, ahead of attorney Caesar Mestre (26.29%), the city’s youth advisory task force chair Peter Diaz (21.8%) and dentist David Bennett (12.76%).
"My vision for Miami Lakes is one where town officials will be held accountable for their actions," said Perdomo in a statement. "Residents deserve the very best individuals to represent their needs and I believe that by applying common sense business practices, we can find solutions to the issues that affect all of us on a daily basis. Fiscal responsibility, crime prevention, efficient public services, and traffic relief are my top priorities."
Perdomo isn’t giving up day job, however, and will continue to operate the Tabacalera Perdomo. But being an elected official and having some access to other local legislators in Florida will also give Perdomo a chance to become a reference point for tobacco issues and be able to represent the often-not-consulted cigar side of things.
>> After his conviction on October 1 on charges of selling counterfeit goods, specifically cigars with Altadis U.S.A.-owned trademarks including H. Upmann, Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta and Trinidad, James David Joiner was sentenced on October 6 to 364 days in Broward County Jail and five years of probation by Judge Mily Rodriguez-Powell.
Joiner, 65, was also ordered to pay a fine, pay restitution to Altadis U.S.A. and to pay the cost of prosecution and of the supervision of his probation period. During the sentencing hearing, it was noted that Joiner’s shop, Smoke Cafe in Ft. Lauderdale, was also selling legitimate Altadis U.S.A.-distributed cigars, side-by-side with the counterfeit goods.
Altadis U.S.A. operates an extensive and aggressive investigatory effort to try and uncover counterfeit cigars that use their trademarks, many of which are also brands produced in Cuba for sale in countries other than the United States. In addition to criminal proceedings brought by state authorities – as in Joiner’s case – Altadis U.S.A. also has the option to follow up with additional, civil suits for damages.
Heard in the Humidor is a publication of Perelman, Pioneer & Company. Copyright 2008; All rights reserved.
________________________________________
HEARD IN THE HUMIDOR
Highlights of the week in cigars and smoking from
For the week of October 27 - 31, 2008
Los Angeles – "We didn’t want to be acquired, you know."
That’s Camacho Cigars President Christian Eiroa, discussing the sale of the company to the Swiss-based Oettinger Davidoff Group, in an interview last week. "We had four suitors, one of which dropped out.
"But Davidoff let me keep my team intact; they were not intrusive. [Davidoff] wasn’t even the best offer, to be honest. But they liked the way we do business; we’re not big spenders, so it worked out."
Eiroa, 36, noted that the entire Camacho team will be retained, all 561 employees, with the major difference going forward that he will be in charge of the entire operation as his father, Julio, concentrates his effort in the growing of tobacco. "That’s going to be different; my father and I as a team was part of what made us successful. But this is a new stage for us."
Eiroa is especially excited about the ability to expand the Camacho brand – founded only in 1962 by Simon Camacho – to a worldwide audience. "I don’t want to ignore the American market, of course; it’s the biggest market there is and very important to us. But now we can target the worldwide market with blends that are different than those we created for the U.S.
"Here, people are always looking for more strength and more personality, but we have to be careful because other markets are different. We don’t want others to say that the Americans are cowboys, with cigars that are all too strong."
That’s quite a comment from the creator of the Camacho Corojo, the powerful blend which helped to re-shape the full-bodied sector of the American market after its introduction in 2000. "As you get older," he noted, "you drink different drinks, your tastes change. As a creator, the mood changes and I think maturity has an effect."
Those changes are helping to shape his next blend, a standard-production version of his secretive "CLE" blend that has, so far, appeared in the limited-edition Camacho Executive Travel Bag, a leather travel case issued in 5,000 units with 20 cigars inside, including four of the perfecto-style CLEs, which measure six inches long by 54 ring at the widest point. That means only 20,000 of the CLEs were made, with a Honduran wrapper and binder and filler leaves from Honduras, Mexico and Nicaragua.
"The CLE was done one time only for the Bag," said Eiroa. "We’re refining the blend. It’s 90-95% done, but there’s something missing. I can’t say what it is, but I’ll notice it when we get it right. I just follow what people tell me what they want. We made strong cigars and then people asked for something different, that was more creamy, so we came out with the [Camacho]10th Anniversary Box Press.
"Now the CLE is refined and we want to keep that refinement, but add depth. The new cigar won’t be called CLE, maybe ‘Camacho Plus’ or something like that. We hope to have it out in the first quarter of 2009 as a standard-production line.
"It will be strong, starting at maybe ‘6' out of 10, but then the focus will be on creaminess and trying to make it more complex. Maybe we can push the strength to ‘7,’ but we will have to see."
>> The well-known actress who was perhaps most famous for her role in commercials for Muriel Cigars, Edie Adams, died on October 15 in the Los Angeles area. Adams (born Elizabeth Edith Enke in 1927) was married to the iconic television comedian Ernie Kovacs from 1954 until his death in an automobile crash in 1962. He was a spokesman for Dutch Masters cigars and often smoked them during his television shows. Adams was approached to be the model for commercials for the smaller and slimmer Muriel line and made famous her breathless line, "Why don’t you pick one up and smoke it some time."
Despite being a Tony Award winner for her role as Daisy Mae in the Broadway musical "L’il Abner" in 1957 and starring in films such as "The Apartment," "Lover Come Back" and "It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World," Adams is probably best remembered for her role in the Muriel commercials (especially those with jazz saxophonist Stan Getz) which aired well into the 1960s. She was married three times with two ending in divorce in addition to losing Kovacs to an auto accident. Her daughter, Mia Kovacs, also died in a car accident in 1982, but she is survived by her son, Josh Mills.
>> Either the Alabama or Tennessee football team likely violated an NCAA rule last weekend and will gleefully end up self-reporting the violation. It’s about cigars.
The heated rivalry between 7-0 Alabama and 3-4 Tennessee, who met on Saturday in Knoxville, Tennessee, doesn’t have a trophy like the Old Oaken Bucket attached to it, but it has a long tradition of celebrating a win over the other with cigars!
The tradition apparently goes back to the 1961 game with Alabama coach Paul "Bear" Bryant in his fourth year and his Crimson Tide having lost five and tied one against Tennessee in their last six meetings. That game at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama, ended with a 34-3 win for the Tide and Bryant passed out victory cigars to the players and coaches after the game in the locker room. A long-time Southern football insider noted that the cigar idea was instigated by two members of the Alabama staff – trainer Jim Goosetree and defensive coordinator Ken Donahue – who had graduated from Tennessee and took the annual game between the schools very personally.
"It’s mainly the coaches and staff who light up, and of course lots of the fans" said our insider, who asked not to be identified by name. "But a few of the kids do it too."
The victory cigar tradition was renewed annually, but after the NCAA adopted rule 11.17 banning all use of tobacco products at practices or games, the victory cigars were publicly discontinued, but privately enjoyed. In addition – and even more important to the schools – the cigars were also considered by the NCAA to be an "extra benefit" provided to players which could lead to punishments up to seasonal ineligibility or loss of scholarships in egregious situations. That dampened the Alabama-Tennessee cigar tradition, but after the 2005 game – a 6-3 Alabama win – the Crimson Tide publicly distributed cigars once again and then self-reported the violation to the NCAA!
>> Short fillers: Find our latest tasting review, of the 112-year old Topper line and its current line-up of handmade and machine-made cigars, in our News & Views archives for October 24.
Heard in the Humidor is a publication of Perelman, Pioneer & Company. Copyright 2008; All rights reserved.
HEARD IN THE HUMIDOR
Highlights of the week in cigars and smoking from
For the week of October 20 - 24, 2008
Los Angeles – "With the addition of Camacho Cigars and Mr. Christian Eiroa, the Oettinger Davidoff Group has successfully united two families with a passion for cigars as a premium product and the ambition to strive unceasingly for the highest quality standards."
That’s Oettinger Davidoff Group chief Reto Cina on the acquisition of Camacho, which was effective as of October 1, but which was not formally announced until October 13. Financial terms were not announced, and are not likely to be seen publicly, since Oettinger Davidoff is privately held.
But Davidoff, which had $1.12 billion in worldwide sales last year (converted from Swiss Francs), now adds ten Honduran-made brand groups to its roster of all-Dominican-made lines: Baccarat "The Game" Havana, Camacho, Deluxe, Don Felo, Don Macho, El Legend-Ario, La Fontana, National Brand, The Repeater and an unbanded (nude) bundle line. The formal announcement noted that Camacho’s biggest-selling single size of the Baccarat Rothschild, a robusto-sized cigar.
No changes are planned for the Camacho operation, which will retain all of its 561 employees, all but 27 of whom work in the Danli, Honduras production facility. Julio Eiroa, 71, will retire from the day-to-day management of the business and return to his first love, which is growing tobacco. Christian Eiroa, 36, will head the Camacho group into the future.
"It offers us a platform so we can grow a lot more aggressively," he said. "We thought it was the right opportunity to be able to perpetuate the life of our brand. Now Camacho will become one of the top ten brands in the world."
Certainly, the opportunity for sales in new venues such as duty-free shops will become available to Camacho, as Davidoff products already dominate humidors in the U.S. and have a steady presence overseas. And Davidoff has 200 company-owned sales locations and 56 Davidoff stores worldwide that will soon be featuring Camacho cigars. Oettinger Davidoff reported that it sold 30.8 million cigars worldwide in 2007.
>> It’s only the Town Council of small Miami Lakes, Florida, but Nick Perdomo triumphed in a hotly-contested race for Seat 1 held on October 7. Perdomo received 1,794 votes of 4,583 cast (39.4%) to win the seat, ahead of attorney Caesar Mestre (26.29%), the city’s youth advisory task force chair Peter Diaz (21.8%) and dentist David Bennett (12.76%).
"My vision for Miami Lakes is one where town officials will be held accountable for their actions," said Perdomo in a statement. "Residents deserve the very best individuals to represent their needs and I believe that by applying common sense business practices, we can find solutions to the issues that affect all of us on a daily basis. Fiscal responsibility, crime prevention, efficient public services, and traffic relief are my top priorities."
Perdomo isn’t giving up day job, however, and will continue to operate the Tabacalera Perdomo. But being an elected official and having some access to other local legislators in Florida will also give Perdomo a chance to become a reference point for tobacco issues and be able to represent the often-not-consulted cigar side of things.
>> After his conviction on October 1 on charges of selling counterfeit goods, specifically cigars with Altadis U.S.A.-owned trademarks including H. Upmann, Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta and Trinidad, James David Joiner was sentenced on October 6 to 364 days in Broward County Jail and five years of probation by Judge Mily Rodriguez-Powell.
Joiner, 65, was also ordered to pay a fine, pay restitution to Altadis U.S.A. and to pay the cost of prosecution and of the supervision of his probation period. During the sentencing hearing, it was noted that Joiner’s shop, Smoke Cafe in Ft. Lauderdale, was also selling legitimate Altadis U.S.A.-distributed cigars, side-by-side with the counterfeit goods.
Altadis U.S.A. operates an extensive and aggressive investigatory effort to try and uncover counterfeit cigars that use their trademarks, many of which are also brands produced in Cuba for sale in countries other than the United States. In addition to criminal proceedings brought by state authorities – as in Joiner’s case – Altadis U.S.A. also has the option to follow up with additional, civil suits for damages.
Want more? Join us for daily coverage of cigars, accessories, people and issues at http://www.cigarcyclopedia.com/.
Heard in the Humidor is a publication of Perelman, Pioneer & Company. Copyright 2008; All rights reserved.
________________________________________
HEARD IN THE HUMIDOR
Highlights of the week in cigars and smoking from
For the week of October 27 - 31, 2008
Los Angeles – "We didn’t want to be acquired, you know."
That’s Camacho Cigars President Christian Eiroa, discussing the sale of the company to the Swiss-based Oettinger Davidoff Group, in an interview last week. "We had four suitors, one of which dropped out.
"But Davidoff let me keep my team intact; they were not intrusive. [Davidoff] wasn’t even the best offer, to be honest. But they liked the way we do business; we’re not big spenders, so it worked out."
Eiroa, 36, noted that the entire Camacho team will be retained, all 561 employees, with the major difference going forward that he will be in charge of the entire operation as his father, Julio, concentrates his effort in the growing of tobacco. "That’s going to be different; my father and I as a team was part of what made us successful. But this is a new stage for us."
Eiroa is especially excited about the ability to expand the Camacho brand – founded only in 1962 by Simon Camacho – to a worldwide audience. "I don’t want to ignore the American market, of course; it’s the biggest market there is and very important to us. But now we can target the worldwide market with blends that are different than those we created for the U.S.
"Here, people are always looking for more strength and more personality, but we have to be careful because other markets are different. We don’t want others to say that the Americans are cowboys, with cigars that are all too strong."
That’s quite a comment from the creator of the Camacho Corojo, the powerful blend which helped to re-shape the full-bodied sector of the American market after its introduction in 2000. "As you get older," he noted, "you drink different drinks, your tastes change. As a creator, the mood changes and I think maturity has an effect."
Those changes are helping to shape his next blend, a standard-production version of his secretive "CLE" blend that has, so far, appeared in the limited-edition Camacho Executive Travel Bag, a leather travel case issued in 5,000 units with 20 cigars inside, including four of the perfecto-style CLEs, which measure six inches long by 54 ring at the widest point. That means only 20,000 of the CLEs were made, with a Honduran wrapper and binder and filler leaves from Honduras, Mexico and Nicaragua.
"The CLE was done one time only for the Bag," said Eiroa. "We’re refining the blend. It’s 90-95% done, but there’s something missing. I can’t say what it is, but I’ll notice it when we get it right. I just follow what people tell me what they want. We made strong cigars and then people asked for something different, that was more creamy, so we came out with the [Camacho]10th Anniversary Box Press.
"Now the CLE is refined and we want to keep that refinement, but add depth. The new cigar won’t be called CLE, maybe ‘Camacho Plus’ or something like that. We hope to have it out in the first quarter of 2009 as a standard-production line.
"It will be strong, starting at maybe ‘6' out of 10, but then the focus will be on creaminess and trying to make it more complex. Maybe we can push the strength to ‘7,’ but we will have to see."
>> The well-known actress who was perhaps most famous for her role in commercials for Muriel Cigars, Edie Adams, died on October 15 in the Los Angeles area. Adams (born Elizabeth Edith Enke in 1927) was married to the iconic television comedian Ernie Kovacs from 1954 until his death in an automobile crash in 1962. He was a spokesman for Dutch Masters cigars and often smoked them during his television shows. Adams was approached to be the model for commercials for the smaller and slimmer Muriel line and made famous her breathless line, "Why don’t you pick one up and smoke it some time."
Despite being a Tony Award winner for her role as Daisy Mae in the Broadway musical "L’il Abner" in 1957 and starring in films such as "The Apartment," "Lover Come Back" and "It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World," Adams is probably best remembered for her role in the Muriel commercials (especially those with jazz saxophonist Stan Getz) which aired well into the 1960s. She was married three times with two ending in divorce in addition to losing Kovacs to an auto accident. Her daughter, Mia Kovacs, also died in a car accident in 1982, but she is survived by her son, Josh Mills.
>> Either the Alabama or Tennessee football team likely violated an NCAA rule last weekend and will gleefully end up self-reporting the violation. It’s about cigars.
The heated rivalry between 7-0 Alabama and 3-4 Tennessee, who met on Saturday in Knoxville, Tennessee, doesn’t have a trophy like the Old Oaken Bucket attached to it, but it has a long tradition of celebrating a win over the other with cigars!
The tradition apparently goes back to the 1961 game with Alabama coach Paul "Bear" Bryant in his fourth year and his Crimson Tide having lost five and tied one against Tennessee in their last six meetings. That game at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama, ended with a 34-3 win for the Tide and Bryant passed out victory cigars to the players and coaches after the game in the locker room. A long-time Southern football insider noted that the cigar idea was instigated by two members of the Alabama staff – trainer Jim Goosetree and defensive coordinator Ken Donahue – who had graduated from Tennessee and took the annual game between the schools very personally.
"It’s mainly the coaches and staff who light up, and of course lots of the fans" said our insider, who asked not to be identified by name. "But a few of the kids do it too."
The victory cigar tradition was renewed annually, but after the NCAA adopted rule 11.17 banning all use of tobacco products at practices or games, the victory cigars were publicly discontinued, but privately enjoyed. In addition – and even more important to the schools – the cigars were also considered by the NCAA to be an "extra benefit" provided to players which could lead to punishments up to seasonal ineligibility or loss of scholarships in egregious situations. That dampened the Alabama-Tennessee cigar tradition, but after the 2005 game – a 6-3 Alabama win – the Crimson Tide publicly distributed cigars once again and then self-reported the violation to the NCAA!
>> Short fillers: Find our latest tasting review, of the 112-year old Topper line and its current line-up of handmade and machine-made cigars, in our News & Views archives for October 24.
Want more? Join us for daily coverage of cigars, accessories, people and issues at www.CigarCyclopedia.com.
Heard in the Humidor is a publication of Perelman, Pioneer & Company. Copyright 2008; All rights reserved.
