IPCPR: Day Three
Well, it’s our third day of the International Premium Cigar and Pipe Retailers Trade Show in Las Vegas and I must be up to 75 cigars smoked already. Today we met with some really great vendors, including Oliva, Gurkha, My Father, SAG Imports (Quesada), Xikar and Perdomo.
Our first stop of the morning was with the Oliva family. It’s a good thing we started there as they have an excellent coffee bar. I really get a kick out of seeing all those bloodshot eyes early in the morning. It’s such a huge gathering of cigar people it just doesn’t seem right not to spend as much time as you can hanging out after hours. It’s a good thing that they hold the convention in a city that never sleeps, because I can honestly say that cigar people rarely sleep, at least during this week.
Our Oliva connection, Albert Sosa, met us with a bright smile on Tuesday morning and I know it took some effort because Albert was one of the guys who didn’t get any sleep. We checked out some exciting new products from Oliva and decided to grab a few things.
Our second visit of the day was with Gurkha cigars, and like Albert, Juan Lopez didn’t get much sleep the night before either. It’s amazing what a few puffs of a full bodied cigar will do for you in the early morning. As always, Gurkha has a lot of new things to offer. One of their new items that we decided to pick up is the Extreme. It comes in a beautiful humidor box and has a military theme. I just know this cigar is going to be very popular. We also grabbed a new gift set from them. If you like the Godzilla pack then you should really like our newest addition, which should hit the stores in time for the Christmas season. It’s a travel humidor packed with five amazing sticks. Don’t worry, we will still offer the popular Godzilla packs again.
Our third stop of the day was with My Father Cigars. Life has been really good for these guys the last two years. Since their Flor de las Antilles was named Cigar of the Year by Cigar Afficionado their sales have really taken off. We looked at their new items and decided that they deserved a little more room in our humidors, so expect a few new sticks from these folks. All of you Don Pepin fans will be happy to know that you will soon be able to buy the blue at our stores.
After a quick lunch we hopped over to SAG Imports, which provides us with our Quesada and Casa Magna lines. We have decided to continue stocking the Oktoberfest cigars and will expand them into more stores this year. There is also a great gift pack of cigars that we thought was so amazing we will carry it year round. It contains six outstanding 6 X 60 cigars, including the Oktoberfest, and it will be priced around the $30 mark.
I know this week is about cigars but we can’t forget about accessories. A quick visit with our newest partners Xikar gave us a chance to add a new lighter and cutter to our lineup. The new cutter is guillotine big enough to clip 70 and 80 ring gauge cigars. Of course, these new items back the same 100% lifetime guarantee that all of their other products carry…which is the reason they are the absolute best to do business with.
We ended our day at Perdomo. Their Champagne cigars, along with the Lot 23, have long been strong sellers for us. We decided to expand our line of the Habano series. They have so many great cigars you just wish you could have them all, but we are limited to the size of our humidors.
I am optimistic that we did a good job of diversifying our humidors and I know you won’t be disappointed once we get all of these great cigars into our stores. Tomorrow we will dedicate the last day of the show to talking with new potential partners. Check back and see who we talked to and if we decided to grab anything else.
Long Ashes,
Chris Gwaltney, ABC Fine Wine & Spirits North Florida regional manager, Certified Tobacconist and Cicerone Beer Server
Follow me on Twitter @abccigarchris.
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