16
TOBACCO BUSINESS
MARCH/APRIL 2014
NEWS & TRENDS
MARCH/APRIL 2014
CVS Dumps Cigs
The nation’s second-largest drug-
store chain says it will no longer sell
tobacco products.
CVS Caremark plans to phase cigarettes, ci-
gars and chewing tobacco out of its 7,600
drugstores by October 1, a move that will
reportedly cost the chain $2 billion in annual
revenue. A company spokesperson says that
exiting tobacco will help it grow the health care
side of its business, which includes operation
of health clinics that administer flu shots and
help people manage chronic illnesses like high
blood pressure and diabetes.
“We’ve come to the conclusion that ciga-
rettes have no place in a setting where health
care is being delivered,” says CEO Larry Merlo.
Some other drugstore chains including the
nation’s largest, Walgreen Co., still sell tobacco,
but many independent pharmacies and chains
do not. In fact, a 2011 study in Los Angeles
reported that just 32 percent of pharmacies
sold cigarettes, and traditional chain pharma-
cies were far more likely to sell cigarettes than
independently-owned pharmacies. Several cit-
ies, including San Francisco, Boston and New
York City, have also considered or passed bans
on tobacco sales in stores with pharmacies for
similar reasons to those cited by CVS.
However, some discount chains such as
Family Dollar have begun selling tobacco in
recent years, recognizing the potential that the
category offers both in profit and attracting
store traffic.
Toraño’s Opens Its Vault Tour
Toraño Family Cigar’s “Blends from the Vault” tour kicked off the first
of 40 events on February 5, 2014 at Three J’s Cigar Store in Davie, Flor-
ida. The tour will feature the Toraño Family’s highly acclaimed Vault
A-008, which received a 92 rating from
Cigar Aficionado
, the recent-
ly released Vault D-042, and the Limited Edition Vault Gold VLE100,
which will only be available at these exclusive events. Charlie Toraño,
president of Toraño Family Cigar Company, wished to introduce an ex-
tremely limited edition third blend from the storied Toraño Vault series
for this special tour. The 100 hand-numbered, nine-count, gold brick
boxes for the tour will hold the only Gold Vault VLE100 cigars ever
produced.
Blends from the vault tour originate from the cigar “blend book”
started by Carlos Toraño, Sr. in 1982. Now over 30 years old, the book
has a record of every blend concept the Toraño family has ever worked
on, many of which the family has released over the years.
In 2011, Charlie Toraño revisited the blend book and discovered an
intriguing, yet unreleased blend: Liga A-008. After a slight modifica-
tion, the Liga A-008 was released to the public and so well received by
critics that another forgotten blend from the book was modified, the
Liga D-042. The Vault Gold VLE100 cigars are from yet another unre-
leased blend from the blend book, also modified to complement the
vault series perfectly.
The Blends from the Vault tour will feature at least two lucky winners
at each event. Each winner will walk away with a box of Vault Gold, a
blend conceptualized by the Toraño family but never produced.
“The Blends from the Vault cigars are a celebration of the Torano
family’s legacy and I am extremely excited about being able to share
this part of our history with the public,” says Charlie Toraño. “Event-
goers can count on either myself, Carlos Llaca Toraño or Jack Toraño
to be present at each of the Blends from the Vault events and announc-
ing the winners of the Vault Gold Brick Box Giveaway.”
TMA to Hold 99th Annual
Meeting and Conference
The theme of the event will be “Evidence-Based Science, Global
Industry Regulation, and FDA Regulation of the U.S. Tobacco and
E-Cigarette Industries.”
Topics to be covered at the TMA’s annual conference at the
Kingsmill Resort in Williamsburg, Virginia will include:
· Tobacco Harm Reduction in the
U.S. and Around the World
· Risk-Benefit Analyses of E-Ciga-
rettes
· Population Risk Modeling for
Modified-Risk Tobacco Products
