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Spirits were cautiously high at July’s annual gathering of cigar and pipe
industry members. Keynote speaker Rudy Giuliani echoed the senti-
ments expressed by many in the industry when he told attendees, “The
regulatory environment has never been better for the argument [this
industry] needs to make.”
Buoyed by a new administration that is pro-business and anti-
regulation, the premium cigar and pipe industry is motoring forward.
Dire predictions of the industry’s demise under U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) regulation have not come to pass, and there’s
building confidence that manufacturers and retailers alike will find
ways to adapt, evolve and even thrive.
Despite this sense of resilience, there were notably fewer new prod-
uct launches in 2017 than we’ve seen in previous years—in stark con-
trast to the record-setting number of IPCPR product launches seen last
year while manufacturers raced to get products on the market before the
FDA’s August 8, 2016, deadline. Many manufacturers opted to take a
wait-and-see approach this year, in the meantime devoting all their ener-
gy to keeping their existing products on the market by meeting a series
of FDA deadlines.
Highlights and
happenings from the
International Premium
Cigar & Pipe Retailers
Association’s 85th
annual convention.
BY JENNIFER GELFAND
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TOBACCO BUSINESS
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Insights
Photos courtesy of Orrie Gaines Photography LLC
and Antoine Reid