58
TOBACCO BUSINESS
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2013
Alex Goldman outlines
the world’s largest
cigar producer’s
bold foray into the
premium market.
By Jennifer Gelfand
W
hen Swisher International
decided to get serious
about the premium cigar
market, the company best known for
its stronghold on the mass-market
cigar sector needed to bring in outside
expertise. Fortuitously,Alex Goldman, a
fourth-generation tobacconist with 20-
plus years of experience in every facet
of the business, was available. Goldman
and his family had sold their company,
House of Oxford/Mom’s Cigars, and he
was primed for a new challenge.
And that’s exactly what he got.
Joining Swisher officially in January of
2013, Goldman came into a company
undergoing a huge transformation.Tom
Ryan, Swisher’s CEO and company
veteran of 26 years, had announced
his retirement a scant three months
earlier, along with plans to pass the
helm to Peter Ghiloni, the senior vice
president of marketing at that time.The
company had suffered layoffs as a result
of offshore competition edging into its
share of mass-market cigar sector in the
wake of SCHIP, and was avidly eyeing
two markets where it hoped to pick up
new business: e-cigarettes and premium
cigars.
“Swisher always had a premium
business, but never concentrated on
Swisher’s Big Bet
onRoyal Gold
