48 TOBACCO BUSINESS | MAY / JUNE | 22 added responsibility of serving as a liaison between STG’s cigar making teams and the company’s existing and future contract manufacturing customers. Another part of Andrews’ new role at STG involves developing collaborations and executing strategic partnerships between STG and other premium cigar makers. These collaborations will be distributed by General Cigar and Forged Cigar Company. A typical day for Andrews is usually anything but typical, something that he actually appreciates because it “keeps things interesting,” he says. His main focus each day is staying on top of all of the company’s contract manufacturing. “As the world’s largest producer of premium cigars, we also make cigars for a lot of people,” he says. “That includes cigars for other manufacturers and private label cigars. In that process, I act as the liaison between our three factories and the other manufacturers.” Those communications include everything fromblending quality control to customer relations. Although that is a full-time job by itself, Andrews also continues to manage the Diesel brand, something he’s done for the past five years. The Halo Effect Another big part of Andrews’ work is overseeing STG’s collaborations. Collaborations are a big part of STG’s business. The company collaborates with other factories as well as other manufacturers. These collaborations are viewed by Andrews as opportunities to work with people that he’s admired for years and to work with companies he’s been a fan of. They also offer STG and the participating individual or company a chance to reach a brand-new customer base. “From a strategic standpoint, one of the things I look for is a company that is very different from ours and one where our strengths will complement each other,” says Andrews. “That’s the initial phase of the collaboration: to see what we have in common. What are the things we’re trying to accomplish? Analyzing their portfolio, our portfolio, trying to see what we can create that’ll be disruptive and ultimately deliver a good cigar experience to the end consumer.” There’s a process behind every collaboration that begins with figuring out what the partner is bringing to the table that’s new to STG and its brands. Somecompanies thatSTGpartnerswith for a collaboration have onlymade cigars in one particular country. That means there are different tobaccos that can nowbe used in blends that wouldn’t have normally been accessible. With STG’s vast tobacco library, Andrews likens this part of the collaboration to being inside WillyWonka’s chocolate factory. “These guys come in, and they see a lot of these varieties of tobacco that otherwise theywouldn’t have had access to,” he says. “That’s where the magic happens.We takesomeof theblends that they have and some of the blends that we have and try to find a combination that represents both companies.” Collaborations outside of the tobacco industry are also of interest to Andrews and STG. For example, back in 2018, STG partnered with Rabbit Hole Distillery to create Diesel Whiskey Row. At the time, Rabbit Hole Distillery was in a similar position as Diesel was—both were in a startup phase and doing things very differently from other similar brands in their respective industries. It was with this that the two companies found synergy and were able to create a fun, innovative premium cigar product. Finding companies that are innovative, exciting and disruptive is key for Andrews and provides a good basis for a mutually beneficial working relationship and collaboration. Profitability and being able to measure a collaboration based on its potential monetary value are just two indicators the company uses to evaluate any collaboration it takes part in. “Justin knows that I’m less strict with collaborations than I would be with our own brands,” explains Regis Broersma, who serves as president of North America Branded and Rest of World and is also an executive board member at STG. “But of course there are thresholds. We have some margin requirements. In order for us to put the salesforce behind, it cannot be 10 boxes; it needs to be at least at scale. In my mind, yes, I do like to make money with every collaboration, but the most important thing is the halo effect and interest [the collaboration] creates.” The halo effect Broersma speaks of is part of the collaboration process that Andrews explains benefits not just STG but the other partner as well. “For a lot of the brands that we’ve collaborated with outside of the category we’ve been able to expose them to a customer base that otherwise may not have been aware of their product and vice versa,” adds Andrews. One of the most recent collaborations that generated a lot of interest from retailers and consumers was the Bolivar Cofradia Lost & Found, a release that Andrews blended alongside Robert Caldwell of Caldwell Cigar Co. The cigar made its retail debut in March and received phenomenal feedback from the market. Another release that shined a light on STG and its collaborator was the Cohiba Serie M, the first Cohiba cigar ever made in the U.S. This cigar, made with the help of El Titan de Bronze, was also received very well by cigar enthusiasts. Warzone was a cigar that was blended with the help of Espinosa, and although it is limited in nature, it has had two different sizes released on the market with a third slated for release later this year. These releases all brought new attention to some of STG’s portfolio of iconic cigar brands and highlighted some of the industry’s best cigar makers and factories outside of STG. Working with different factories and manufacturers allows Andrews to help bring to the market new cigars with exciting blends not present in any other Scandinavian Tobacco Group-made cigar.
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