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TOBACCO OUTLET BUSINESS
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2012
Expanding your cigar business in a constricting industry is quite
doable, as these three opportunistic players tell it.
Stogie Growth Tales
By Renee M. Covino
H
ow’s your stogie business
hanging? By now, most
tobacco outlets have tuned
into the very necessary survival tactic
of tobacco diversity making a bigger
push into the premium cigar market.
But it’s clearly not enough to just set up
a well-stocked humidor and hope for
the best. Growth in this category is still
a probable bet if a concerted effort is
made—and there is more than just one
way to achieve that.
Valuable lessons can be learned
outside of the channel; even if a tobacco
outlet doesn’t have the resources or
clientele of a high-end cigar store, there
are nuggets of good advice or perhaps
just one great idea that can be realized
from tales such as these:
Store Expansion and
Cultivating a Culture
The Tinder Box in Waldorf, Maryland
has grown its business every year it’s
been in business (14 years), and for
the last four (very difficult industry-
wide) years it’s grown a minimum of 30
percent every year. What is franchisee
Jeff Lustig’s secret? “We constantly
do things slightly differently,” he tells
Tobacco Outlet Business
. “
It’s a different
type of culture here: this is not really a
cigar store and it’s not really a bar.” He
says it’s more like a place of refuge with
two different vibes: day and night.
About four years ago, the business
moved from its 10-year location—an
800-
square-foot store in a regional
shopping mall—to its new ambiance—a
