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TOBACCO BUSINESS
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MARCH
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APRIL
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Toledo less than an hour away from our warehouse, it
just made sense to expand in that direction.”
Beyond store growth and acquisition, good news was
eked out of legislative defeats, election results and spe-
cific categories. “There was very little good news, except
for the continued evolution of the vape segment, and
federal and state election results,” says Bob Roberts,
president of Smoke Em, based in Scottsdale, Arizona
with nine stores.
For Collett Enterprises, state legislation also turned
out to be good news. “The proposed state tax increase
in Indiana was defeated last year, and that was a good
thing,” Darren Collett tells
TB
. “However, we will fight
the same battle again this year.”
Similarly, for Smoker Friendly, “the defeat of the excise
tax increases in Colorado,” was happy news, Gallagher
mentions. “With 50-plus stores in Colorado [under the
corporate entity of The Cigarette Store] the proposed
tax would have been a big liability to the business.”
Along the same lines, there were “no tax increases on
cigarettes or tobacco products and hopefully none in
sight for 2017,” adds Bill Grantz, owner and partner at
18-store chain Cox’s Smokers Outlet & Spirit Shoppes,
based in Louisville, Kentucky.
Overall business gains in 2016 were another high point
mentioned by top 50 players. “We saw a same-store sales
increase of 4.7 percent over 2015, even with some new
aggressive competition in our areas,” Grantz relays.
Likewise, a “2.5 percent increase of overall category
sales with an increase in margin dollars” was the best
news for Frank Armstrong, president of Blue Ridge To-
bacco, based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina with
eight stores. He reports that the overall 2016 increase
was primarily the result of three stellar categories—im-
ported cigars, which saw a 7 percent increase in sales;
cigarette packs, which grew about 12 percent; and lot-
tery sales, which were up about 6-7 percent.
Positive premium cigar sales were also on the good
news radar for Town Crier, based in Mandeville, Louisi-
ana with 10 stores. Owner Randy Drott reports making
“up to $1.99 a stick now,” which has really helped the
chain’s profit margins.
For other top 50 players, where gains are not being
realized, it’s the overall steady flow that has them upbeat.
“We hung in there pretty good; business stayed pretty
steady,” says Paul Mahoney, owner of Puff Super Value,
based in Mill Hall, Pennsylvania, with 17 stores. Looking
at his categories, “vapor kind of leveled off, but we still
do a fair amount of business in it, the price of cigarettes
is going wild, and RYO seems to be picking up more and
more. I guess the best thing is RYO right now—it’s the
strongest suit by far.”
At Dyer, Indiana-based Smoke Shop, where cigarettes
are still king for all 21 stores, “the business leveled off,
rather than declining as it has for the last 10 or 15 years,”
reports Gary Tapley, owner. “Everything in the manufac-
turer contracts are written for the c-store/gas channel, but
we offer what they can’t—if a customer wants a carton of
Saratoga [cigarettes], for instance, we still can offer that.”
In summary of accentuating the positive in difficult
times, Randy Silverman, president of Klafter’s, d.b.a.
Smoker Friendly/Cigar Express, says that “some years
we are faced with bigger challenges than in other years.
10 |
DISCOUNT SMOKE
SHOPS,
St. Louis, Missouri;
47 stores
11 |
KWIK TRIP
(Tobacco
Outlet Plus, Kwik Trip
Express, Kwik Star Express),
LaCross, Wisconsin;
42 stores
12 |
a
NBS,
Parkersburg, West Virginia;
41 stores
13 |
CHEAP TOBACCO,
Cincinnati, Ohio;
40 stores
14 |
SMOKIN’ JOES,
Waymart, Pennsylvania;
30 stores
15 |
a
COLLETT
ENTERPRISES,
Seymour, Indiana;
29 stores
16 |
SAVER GROUP,
Campbellsville, Kentucky;
27 stores
17 |
TOBACCO PLUS
DISCOUNT OUTLET,
Crowley, Louisiana;
24 stores
18 |
a
CLTS INC./DOT
DISCOUNT/CIGARETTE
CITY,
Dover, Delaware;
24 stores
19 |
A&K WHOLESALE
(Discount Tobacco Outlets),
Murfreesboro, Tennessee;
23 stores
20 |
TRO OF NORTH
CAROLINA (TOBACCO
ROAD OUTLETS),
Lakeview, North Carolina;
22 stores
21 |
SMOKE SHOP,
Dyer, Indiana; 21 stores
22 |
SMOKE ‘N GO,
Abbeville, Louisiana; 21
stores
23 |
a
SMOKES 4 LESS,
Poughkeepsie, New York;
20 stores