Page 7 - TOB Magazine Jan/Feb 2013

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TOBACCO OUTLET BUSINESS
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013
NEWS & TRENDS
Author and speaker Nick “Gunny Pop”
Popaditch—the “Cigar Marine”—is
dedicating a portion of the profits
from his new line of cigars, “The Cigar
Marine,” to support the Injured Marine
Fund. Launched in November on the
birthdate of the Marine Corps, the first
two premium hand-rolled cigars in
the line are “The Gunny” (a double-
wrapped Torpedo) and “The Tanker” (a
mild spiced Rum).
The line, which honors Popaditch’s
fellow military men and women, will
be designed and distributed at Art of
Cigars in El Dorado Hills, California, in
cooperation with Popaditch’s publisher,
Savas Beatie LLC.
“I am excited to stand behind a
product that allows cigar smokers to
celebrate in true Marine Corps style,
and even more so to support a great
organization that helps so many injured
Marines and their families,” says Nick
“Gunny Pop” Popaditch. Popaditch
says his goal is to raise one million
dollars for the Injured Marine Semper
Fi Fund, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit set up to
provide immediate financial support for
injured and critically ill members of the
U.S. Armed Forces and their families.
Popaditch, who was injured in combat
during the First Battle of Fallujah in
2004 when he was struck in the head
by an enemy rocket propelled grenade
(RPG), has been a strong supporter of
the Semper Fi Fund. In that battle, he
lost his right eye and suffered severe
damage to the left, leaving him legally
blind and partially deaf in his right ear.
Popaditch is now a medically retired
Gunnery Sergeant.
Popaditch was forever immortalized
as “The Cigar Marine” after AP
photographer LaurentRebourscaptured
him smoking in the turret of his battle
tank just before Saddam’s iconic statue
was pulled down in Firdos Square on
April 9, 2003. The image appeared on
the front pages of newspapers around
the world.
A recipient of the Silver Star and
Purple Heart, he is now a highly
sought-after speaker and author of
Once a Marine: An Iraq War Tank
Commander’s Inspirational Memoir of
Combat, Courage, and Recovery (Savas
Beatie LLC, 2008) and The Ultimate
Marine Recruit Training Guidebook: A
Drill Instructor’s Strategies and Tactics
for Success.
Cigar Line To Benefit
Injured Marines
A new line of cigars from author and speaker Nick “Gunny
Pop” Popaditch—the “Cigar Marine”—will benefit injured Ma-
rines’ Semper Fi Fund.
IMP Meerschaum Pipes and Tobacco
has tapped Steven L. Whetstone to
serve as the exclusive distributor
in the U.S. and Canada for its hand-
carved pipes produced in Turkey
from the highest quality solid black
meerschaum available. Each of the
pipes, which have a 4mm draft hole
and use a briar-type tenon, comes with
its own fitted hard-shell case. Retailers
interested in carrying the pipes can
contact Whetstone, who owned and
operated the Johnnysmoker Tobacco
Store in St. Petersburg, Florida, by
email atslwnbp@msn.comor by
phone at 681-599-2353.
Turkish Pipe
Distributor Announced
E-Cigarette Revolution
More and more industry experts are
acknowledging the growing popularity of
e-cigarettes, according to Radu, Professor of
Medicine at the University of Louisville, who
cites Bonnie Herzog, a Wells Fargo security
analyst, as an example. Herzog, who has
followed the tobacco industry for more than
a decade, recently described e-cigarettes
as “here to stay,” and suggested sales
would reach $1 billion within a few years.
In fact, Herzog went so far as to predict that
e-cigarette sales could surpass combustible
cigarettes within 10 years.
These predictions are based on
impressive increases in e-cigarette sales
since 2008. U.S. e-cigarette sales totaled
$20 million in 2008, and have doubled each
subsequent year, to $500 million in 2012,
according to UBS data presented by NJOY
CEO Craig Weiss during a conference call
with Goldman Sachs on December 14. As
Weiss noted, the explosive growth occurred
despite the category being inundated
with low-quality products that provided a
suboptimal experience to smokers.
While quality issues remain, as more
manufacturers of traditional cigarette
invest in the category, quality levels should
improve, suggests Radu, who notes that
topmanufacturers are investing significantly
in the e-cigarette space. Recent examples
include; Lorillard, which purchased Blu,
British American Tobacco, which purchased
CNCreative (Intellicig e-cigarette brand), and
RJ Reynolds, which launched e-cigarette
Vuse in limited test markets in Virginia and
North Carolina.
Wells Fargo’s Herzog also notes that as
decliningcigaretteconsumptionincreasingly
affects state payments from the 1998Master
Settlement Agreement, state governments
may be prompted to impose excise taxes
on e-cigarettes to cover those losses.
E-cigarettes have escaped excise taxes
because they were not classified as tobacco
products, but that exclusion may end now
that federal courts ruled that e-cigarettes are
tobacco products.
The bottom line? The future is bright for
this new area of tobacco retail—although
excise taxes could hinder growth.
Harm
Reduction
Update