56
TOBACCO OUTLET BUSINESS
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012
ultimately, to become the company it
is today. Demand was so intense that
the company constantly struggled to
keep up, even fulfilling a few thousand-
plus cigar orders without boxes. “At
one point, we had to put 3,500 cigars
in bankers boxes and load them on
someone’s gulfstream jet,” says Paolo
Garzaroli. “Our goal was to make
100,000
to 150,000 cigars a year, but
the next thing we knew we were at
200,000.
It was a side business that kept
growing in spite of ourselves.”
Today, Graycliff has multiple cigar
brands (see sidebar, p. 58), offering a
wide variety of both taste profile and
price to suit the varying needs of cigar
fans. Recent additions to the lineup
include cigars on both ends of the value
spectrum—the B-cuz value-priced
cigar and the super premium Graycliff
Silver, which will be packaged in a silver
bullion vault.
Production also continues to
expand. This year, the company made
approximately 650,000 cigars. “In the
new facility we are able to do 1 million
to 1.2 million—not that we want to get
that big,” says Paolo Garzaroli. “But
demand has grown and next year it looks
like we will be in the neighborhood of
900,000.”
Even with production ramping
up, the factory remains on the hotel
property. Until recently, cigars were
made in the same building that houses
the Churrascaria Humidor restaurant.
However, Graycliff has since moved
the cigar-making business to its own
freestanding building nearby, with a
huge outdoor/indoor lounge where
hotel guests and restaurant patrons can
relax and enjoy a smoke.
Paolo Garzaroli, who grew up doing
everything fromwashing pots to driving
a limo in the restaurant and hotel
business, now runs the cigar operations.
Like his father, Garzaroli continually
looks for ways to expand and revitalize
the business. In addition to new cigar
blends, he has recently introduced a new
retail concept—airport cigar lounges.
“
I came up with the idea when I
left an industry show flying out of
Atlanta where everyone could smoke
freely and came to the airport, where
people smoking looked like convicts
in a glass cage,” he explains. “Travel is
Continued on p. 62