Page 13 - TOB Magazine March/April 2013

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TOBACCO OUTLET BUSINESS
MARCH/APRIL 2013
the FDA act before the premium cigar
industry can get theirs out; will the
FDA try to oversee all cigars or not, we
don’t know that,” stated Keane.
As for manufacturers, there’s
nothing proactive they can really
do except make sure they know that
they own the ingredients in their
products. “Also that they own their
recipe, that they own their trademark,
and that they have a contract in place
with their manufacturer, if they’re not
the manufacturer,” Keane continued.
“It’s very important; the cigarette
manufacturers found out the hard
way, unfortunately, that if they were
having contract manufacturing done,
the contract manufacturer would likely
be the owner of the ingredients and,
therefore, there were some issues that
some ran into regarding being able to
register the products as theirs.
“Before the FDA, the whole industry
was brand-oriented. If you bought
and sold a brand, all you were doing
is buying and selling the brand name.
And you didn’t also have to sell all the
ingredients within the brand. And so
that was never even addressed in some
contracts.”
On the retail end of things, cigar
retailers are going to have to realize
that the FDA is most likely going to
copywhat theyalreadyhave inplace for
cigarettes. “There are some differences
in marketing aspects, some differences
in face-to-face sales, and when you can
sample products, but the low-hanging
fruit for the FDA is just marketing and
advertising enforcement,” said Keane.
“That’s where they can really go in
and see what’s already being done and
hear from the industry. Advertising,
sponsorships, warnings—these are
not regulated on cigars but they soon
may be. So the retailers are going to be
looking at more of the same. The same
stuff they’re already doing, they’re going
to have to be doing for this other stuff.”
In summary, it’s going to be more
of the same with the FDA. “I’m very
convinced that they’re not going to
carve out some new-fangled regulation
that specifically fits these products, ones
that you would hope a regulator would
do; I don’t perceive they will do that,”
she stated. “And a lot of these deeming
regulations just don’t fit well with
cigars. But that seems to be how the
FDA operates in our industry.” TOB
“And a lot of these deeming regulations
just don’t fit well with cigars. But that
seems to be how the FDA operates in our
industry.” — Nancyellen Keane