Tobacco Business

[ 84 ] TOBACCO BUSINESS [ MAY / JUNE | 21 ] I Industrial Cigar Co., located in Frisco, Texas, has become a destination for many cigar enthusiasts since it first opened in 2017. Owned and operated by the Frakes family, Industrial Cigar Co. is home to two lounges and an eclectic collection of cigars that includes both boutique and more well-known brands. The Frakes family has long bonded over a shared love of cigars, and several years ago, the family invested that love into a business. Having seen the connections and relationships that cigars could create between people, the Frakes family felt inspired to start a business that would bring people together through a shared love and passion for cigars. For the Frakes family, being good tobacconists is a combination of several factors. First, a good tobacconist must care about their customers. Tobacconists must have a desire to create an experience and learn about the tobacco culture, and they also must understand that they carry a responsibility of having a team that they trust. Tobacco retailers have to be ready and willing to fight for their businesses. Over the years, the Frakes family has learned several more lessons about being tobacconists, such as the importance of space in terms of scaling a business. No lesson, however, is as important as understanding the need to create a unique experience for customers and a retailer’s role in bringing a community together. The Catalyst Industrial Cigar Co. is a full-on family affair. The logo for the business incorporates a hexagon, with each corner representing six different members of the Frakes family. Two of those points represent twin brothers Andrew and Nathan, and another represents Brandon, one of Industrial Cigar Co.’s owners. Brandon and his brothers have looked up to their father and idolized him since they were children. While growing up, Brandon remembers his father being very strict and disciplined—he didn’t drink or partake in many vices, but he did have a weakness for cigars, something Brandon refers to as a chink in their father’s armor. When Brandon was 18, he visited a cigar lounge and purchased his first cigar as a legal adult, a Playboy by Don Diego. Brandon brought this cigar back home with him and also bought two additional ones that he shared with his younger brothers to smoke together and emulate what they had spent their time seeing their father do throughout their childhood. “We fell in love with smoking cigars because we thought we were cool as ever,” says Brandon. Little did I know, this was really the kickoff point of cigar smoking becoming more and more frequent. Any opportunity I had, I would pick up three cigars: two for my brothers and one for myself, and it was always a Playboy by Don Diego. That was really the start of our love of cigars, which ran parallel to my dad enjoying cigars and us enjoying them also, secretly praying to God that we wouldn’t get caught along the way.” With cigars now a regular catalyst for how Brandon and his family bonded and came together, they also found themselves spending a lot of time smoking in different cigar lounges. One of Brandon’s brothers was a professional golfer while the other was a collegiate track and field athlete, giving the family the opportunity and a reason to travel around the country and experience different lounges. As they visited