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TOBACCO BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015
By Renée Covino
Steady as She
Rolls
T
he turbulent seas are a thing of the past. The volatility that came with
the highs and lows of the automatic rolling machines taking charge
of business—and then, almost as quickly, going out of business—is no
more.The waters are calm and the sailing is smooth as tobacco retailers
report to be maneuvering pretty tight RYO departments these days.
Here are some captains’ log highlights of late:
Flat to modest growth recorded—
Many tobacco outlet
retailers recorded surprisingly strong or double-digit
growth in their RYO categories in the years since the large
automatic RYO machine business was shut down. More
recently, “there’s been a little bit of flattening,” reports
Frank Davoli, director of marketing at Tobacco Central
dba Low Bob’s based in South Bend, Indiana. “With gas
prices going down and the economy getting better, along
with unemployment, the people who previously jumped
on RYO are not all jumping on it now; but that being said,
it’s still a strong and robust category for us.”
Darren Collett, president of Collett Enterprises based
in Seymour, Indiana, agrees that the category has “leveled
off over the last year.” He notes that “there has not been a
The RYO ship is a sure and steady one
these days. Here are 10 trends that are
shaping the state of the industry.