20
TOBACCO BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL
JULY/AUGUST 2014
NEWS & TRENDS
JULY/AUGUST 2014
Drew Estate Names
“Master Blender”
Willy Herrera will assume the role.
Drew Estate (DE) has named Willy Herrera as its “master blender.” Recruited
three years ago to create a signature brand illustrating his Cuban heritage and
Cuban-esque blending style, Herrera will now lead the company’s blending team.
The move represents a major change for Drew Estate, marking the first occasion
where someone of Cuban descent has held a top-level position at the company.
Herrera’s new responsibilities will place him at the front and center of Drew Es-
tate’s blending team, which will allow him to channel his passion and energy into
creating new blends and maintaining Drew Estate’s current signature blends.
Herrera’s talents were honed over the eight years of on-the-job training while
running the El Titan de Bronze factory in the Little Havana neighborhood of Mi-
ami, Florida. His responsibilities at El Titan de Bronze included tobacco purchas-
ing, production, blending and quality control.
“Authenticity is the key factor that originally attracted the DE shareholders to
Willy,” says Jonathan Drew, company co-founder. “I personally know the chal-
lenges and skill set necessary to lead a premium cigar factory at all stages of de-
velopment, [from] 15 employees [up] to 1,500. Willy has the main ingredients—
passion, humility and confidence—to achieve great results. It is important for me
to clarify that Willy is not in charge of running La Gran Fabrica Drew Estate. His
position is a newly created, specific role built around his greatest talent: master
blend[ing]. We intend to challenge Willy in expanding his blending universe from
Liga Privada to Kentucky Fire Cured. This will not be easy for him. Willy will re-
port directly to me, and I am not an easy person to work for. I am very demanding
and require absolute excellence when it comes to creativity.”
Says Willy Herrera: “my passion and love for Nicaragua has grown immensely
over the past three years. I lived in Nicaragua while we blended our Herrera Estelí
line and, during that time, [I] really got to know the people at the factory. I grew
to love the country, especially Estelí. This is an incredible opportunity, and it’s a
dream come true for me to become master blender of a global company as well-
respected as Drew Estate.”
Due to Drew Estate’s decision to appoint Herrera as master blender, the com-
pany also decided to bring the new “NORTENO by Willy Herrera” line into pro-
duction at Drew Estate, as opposed to
Joya de Nicaragua, where it was origi-
nally to be produced. Additionally, this
will allow Joya de Nicaragua to focus
on production of the “MUWAT Kentucky
Fire Cured” line, which is currently
backordered, along with the new Joya
de Nicaragua products to be released at
the 2014 IPCPR trade show in Las Ve-
gas, Nevada.
The NORTENO by Willy Herrera line
will debut at this trade show as well;
a formal press release will follow with
more information about the project.
NJ Seeks OTP
Sales Tax
Retailers and—ironically—the
state itself stand to suffer most
from the proposal.
Two New Jersey senators recently proposed
an amendment to SB 1867 that would adopt
“tax parity” for all other tobacco products—in
other words, raise taxes on cigars, smokeless
tobacco, pipe tobacco, and even electronic
cigarettes on par with the state’s cigarette tax
rate. If passed, the proposal would bring the
following tax hikes:
1. Cigars priced at $2.00 or more would be
taxed at $2.70 per cigar.
2. Cigarillos with a retail price of less than
$2.00wouldbe taxed at 54 cents, or $2.70per
five-pack.
3. Little cigars weighing three pounds per
1,000 or less would be taxed at 13.5 cents, or
$2.70 per pack of 20.
4. Pipe tobacco would be taxed at $4.15 per
ounce, or $66.40 per pound.
5. Moist snuff would be taxed at $2.25 per
ounce, which is triple the current tax of 75
cents per ounce.
6. Snus would be taxed at 13.5 cents per
single pouch.
7. All other tobacco productswould be taxed
at a rate of 68 percent of their wholesale price.
8. A 75 percent tax would be imposed on the
wholesale cost of e-cigarettes.
Furthermore, as written, the amendment
would impose a floor stocks tax on both
wholesalers and retailers on all of these to-
bacco products in stock on the day the tax
increases would go into effect.
Brick-and-mortar retail stores would suffer
greatly under this tax parity, whichwould like-
lydriveconsumers topurchaseOTPproducts
over the Internet, where they can generally
escape paying any tobacco taxes and sales
taxes. That unintended consequence would,
in turn, mean lost tax revenue for the state of
New Jersey instead of the increased revenue
that the state is projecting from the bill.
