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Publisher’s Letter
4
The Genius of Option Three
News & Trends
12
Cuba Trade Ban Lifted, Youth Smoking Drops and More
TMA Report
20
A Roundup of Industry News
Category Manager
26
Vaping Market: Where We Stand
Cigarette Packaging:
52
Plain as Day: What Does the EC’s New Tobacco Products
Directive Mean for Manufacturers?
Pipe in Hand
34
Brotherhood of the Pipe
Product Profile
88
A Guide to New and Popular Tobacco Products
Final Note
96
Vapor Trendspotting
INSIDE
THIS ISSUE
Trench Marketing: “Fill ‘Er Up!” page 80
Wells Fargo’s 2014 Vapor Forum, page 40
Window on the World, page 54
CIGAR SENSE
Catering to a New Cigar Generation
28
Aromas in Jacksonville, Florida stakes its claim as the largest smoking lounge south of
Philadelphia. Here’s how it went beyond selling stogies to old fogies, capturing a “premier
nightlife” personality.
FEATURES
COVER STORY
2014 Rewind/2015 Fast Forward
42
From
TBI
’s Top 50 Tobacco Outlets
Tobacco Business International
announces its industry’s Top 50 retailers, some
of which press the replay button on their 2014 business issues, as well as jump ahead
to their 2015 perspectives.
Electric Alley: Handling the Vape Shop Heat
36
Traditional tobacco stores have a variety of opinions and strategies regarding their
vape shop competition.
Event Highlight: Wells Fargo’s 2014 Vapor Forum
40
Innovation will drive the category’s growth, participants agreed.
Window on the World
54
East meets West in a tour of China’s vapor industry.
Welcome to TPC 2015!
62
The Tobacco Plus Convenience Expo opens in Las Vegas on January 28.
What Happens in Vegas…
Isn’t Necessarily What You Think
70
Things to do in Vegas that don’t involve gambling, drinking or dining.
Trench Marketing: “Fill ’Er Up!”
80
Chuck Horvath’s Cigar Station relies on product expertise, savvy web marketing and
consistent pricing to tailor its selection of cigars and craft beers to its blue-collar clientele.
Cigar Sense: Catering to a New Cigar Generation,
page 28