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TOBACCO BUSINESS
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One of the reasons the big-name cigar lounge con-
cept works for Leeds is his two-decade banking business
background. “I’m very comfortable with the boardroom
and the corporate environment. I have a lot of respect
for the process, the layers of management, brand aware-
ness and everything that goes along with big companies.
“I’m a big fan of big-company environments,” he says.
According to Leeds, Altadis was a particularly good
match for Prime Cigar due to the strength of their brands,
“their reach into the cigar community and the relation-
ships we’ve built internally. It just seemed to be the perfect
fit with their high-level programs and the type of events
and activations that we at Prime Cigar plan out,” he ex-
plains. “From their brand recognition and their ability to
understand our vision, they fit with us better than anyone.
And it’s just the way we’re programmed; we are a small
company with a big-company mindset.”
Geographically speaking, the fit is perfect, too.
“Their U.S. headquarters is located almost equidis-
tant between our Boca [Raton] and Miami locations
in Florida, so I have incredible access to the team,” says
Leeds. “I get the luxury of popping in and having a
strategic discussion with them as I’m driving from one
location to another. I have the benefit of access to all of
their teams, from event planning to creative products to
marketing and advertising. I leverage the relationship,
but I also leverage the location.”
Design-wise, Prime Cigar is really invested in its Casa
de Montecristo partnership. “If I’m going to partner
with a brand I have respect for, I’m going all-in,” says
Leeds. “We incorporate a lot of that brand’s collateral,
the design and look and feel of that brand. There are
certain elements at Montecristo that we captured and
highlighted and emphasized, such as building the fleur-
de-lis into our actual design. We also incorporated
branded pillars and custom furniture. The brand really
becomes an element of design and not an afterthought.”
Looking forward, Leeds sees growth of the Prime
Cigar business with continued growth of the Casa de
Montecristo partnership. “We are very focused on the
expansion of the brand, and there are at least three let-
ters of intent for further locations in South Florida,” he
offers. At least two more locations in two years is the
conservative plan, “dependent on landlord negotiations
and buildout time.”
Leeds notes that the company is “very, very discern-
ing when it comes to locations. The biggest hurdle in
our business is not money and it’s not product—it’s find-
ing the right location, personnel and team.”
Looking back on his first branded lounge experi-
ence, which came six years after he opened his first
cigar lounge, Leeds considers the idea of going back
in time—would he have started out with a branded
lounge if he could?
“I don’t think so,” he says. “We didn’t have the ex-
perience of the relationships with the brands yet, so it
would have been much more of a shot in the dark, and
the success would have been based on luck, not knowl-
edge and experience.
“And our plan is to grow a big company,” Leeds
adds. “In our minds, we are a big company; it’s just
getting there physically.”
If I’m going to
partner with
a brand I have
respect for, I’m
going all-in.
Prime Cigar
Casa De Montecristo,
Miami, Florida
Safe Havens
Continued