Tobacco Business

40 TOBACCO BUSINESS | NOVEMBER / DECEMBER | 22 letting them know we have the cigar,” Espinosa explains. “Our biggest issue is no different than everybody else: You can ask 99 percent of every manufacturer out there, ‘What’s your biggest issue?’ Right now, it’s packaging.” Although packaging issues were something Espinosa couldn’t predict early on in the pandemic, he was able to adjust different aspects of his business in order to better handle today’s reality. A lot of the changes made happened within the company’s factory in Nicaragua. Espinosa Cigars provides its La Zona team with plenty of masks and hand sanitizer, even with the pandemic winding down and becoming more of an ongoing situation, such as the flu or a cold. Everyone that walks into the factory is asked to wash his or her hands, and Espinosa himself is a firm believer that each worker should have a choice of whether to wear a mask during their workday. Hygiene is a major concern for Espinosa, who sees society’s emphasis on washing hands, cleaning and protecting oneself from germ exposure as one of the positive things to come out of the pandemic. Another change that came from the pandemic was the company’s stock of tobacco. Espinosa Cigars has more tobacco on hand for its blends today than it has had in the past, and a big lesson that Espinosa learned was to stock up on different tobaccos, packaging and bands in order to prepare for any unforeseen supply chain issues. Planning is key, he explains, because you have to make sure you have everything needed to keep your cigars on store shelves and your customers supplied with what they’re looking for. If the last two years of events that took place Erik Espinosa has earned the nickname of Alpha Dawg in the industry, though it’s his knack for being direct and for telling the truth that’s helped him build his reputation and his brand. [Retailers] like people that work for them. It’s a partnership, so we have to engage with them. “I’ll sit in my office, and on Mondays I’ll call all my friends: the retailers. ‘Hey, how are you doing? How’s your family? How’s this? How’s that?’ That’s how you continue to build the relationship. –Erik Espinosa

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