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Plus Expo (TPE) and the International Premium Cigar
& Pipe Retailers Association (IPCPR) show (Booth 2930),
has also helped Santa Clara grow its brand and presence
among its targeted wholesale customers.
Another important growth factor has been Santa
Clara’s shift to viewing its customers as partners rather
than just as accounts. Santa Clara helps its retail part-
ners find the right products for each store based upon
the preferences of the store’s adult smoker clientele and
finds other ways to provide its partners with the tools
and products necessary for success. “We’re focusing
on increasing our key accounts’ portfolios and helping
them find products that they don’t currently stock that
may otherwise be beneficial for them to carry,” explains
Alan Rubin, Santa Clara’s business development coor-
dinator. “We’ve been focusing a lot on educating our
customers about other available products so they don’t
get stuck buying the same things over and over again.
In addition to recommending products that can help
increase profit margins, Santa Clara has helped those re-
tailers new to premium cigars by offering them a “start-
up” humidor package that includes a two-foot humidor
stocked full of products that have been proven to sell in
other stores. For those retailers who are already set up
with product, Santa Clara offers marketing and point-
of-sale materials, including signage and shelf-talkers to
help educate and sell cigars and other tobacco products.
A FOCUS ON PREMIUM CIGARS
According to Joyce, he and others at Santa Clara have
seen an uptick in the premium-cigar category, justifying
the company’s current focus on those products and pre-
mium tobacconists in general. “We’re working with big,
key accounts to develop them and expand their portfoli-
os of premium cigars,” says Joyce. “Our concentration,
although we’re in all categories of tobacco products, is
the premium cigar category. We probably have more
than 500 brands and over 100 million cigars in our hu-
midified warehouse of over 130,000 square feet. We
carry most national brands and have an extensive list of
cigars that are Santa Clara exclusives, such as Romeo
Crafted by A.J. Fernandez and Montecristo Crafted by
A.J. Fernandez cigars.”
Other exclusives include El Rey del Mundo, manufac-
tured by General Cigar Co., the Rocky Patel Fire and Ice
lines, and the affordably priced Mr. B and La Finca bun-
dles. These exclusive cigars help give Santa Clara unique
and sought-after inventory that retail partners can’t get
anywhere else.
“The big advantage of this type of distribution ar-
rangement is that it’s exclusively for Santa Clara’s part-
ners, and the profits and margins for our partners are
high,” Joyce explains. “As with the cigars made with
A.J. Fernandez, it’s something that can only be bought
from Santa Clara; it gives our customers something
unique within their market if everybody around them
does not have it.”
Santa Clara
Continued