TOB Magazine

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TOBACCO BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016
also to help create blends of tobacco for
fellow stogie manufacturers without pre-
predicate products.
“I get teased for releasing a lot of
blends,” states Rocky Patel, founder of
Rocky Patel Cigars. But that turned out
to be an industry blessing this past July
when Patel’s factories were in full produc-
tion until 1 a.m., churning out 1,470 new
SKUs, according to the cigar great. “We
plan on complying with the rules, but of
course we’re hoping to defeat this some-
how. Churning out those SKUs was our
insurance policy looking forward,” he says.
It was also to help out smaller and
boutique manufacturers that didn’t have
any pre-predicate products—those that
didn’t come on the cigar scene until 2009,
2010 and 2011, for example. “I remember
when I started, I didn’t have a lot of help,
but these times are very tough. I feel for
them; they’re getting punished for trying
to make a great cigar, so we’re trying to
give them as many blends as we ’re
helping them with this launch,” says Patel.
One of these smaller players is EPC
Cigar, makers of La Gloria Cubana ci-
gars. “We started in 2009, so there’s not
a lot to fall back on,” admits Ernesto Per-
ez-Carrillo, referring to the fact that his
company does not have a pre-predicate
product. “But as a company, we are going
to be investing and fighting this thing out.
Right now, it’s business as usual, and down
the road we will see what happens. We’ve
seen so many things in this industry; we’ll
adapt and find a way to roll forward. I’m
very optimistic.”
Meanwhile, there are others in the in-
dustry—in between a Rocky Patel and
La Gloria Cubana pre-predicate product
wise—who are just as optimistic. “As op-
posed to Rocky, I only came out with 14
new SKUs before August 8, not 1,400,
but I was still lucky to have pre-predicate
product[s],” says Pete Johnson of Tatu-
aje Cigars. “I am confident I have enough
product in my portfolio to get an SE on—I
have a lot of have great lawyers
and I plan to get old in this business.”
The “Trimming of Brands”
Conversation
One of the consequences of regulation is
that cigar makers are being forced to scale
back on products now and in the near fu-
ture, knowing that they won’t be able to
“save” many SKUs.
“When I look at my portfolio, it’s going
to be about trimming products that might
not make sense moving forward,” Johnson
says. “I can’t hold on to inventory for per-
sonal reasons, no matter how much I want
to—it doesn’t make economic sense, not
when we’re talking about $100,000 to reg-
ister one SKU. At this point, I don’t know
what the exact cost will be. No one has told
us anything yet along those lines, but I know
the trimming is coming.”
“Absolutely, lines will go away for us,”
agrees Patel. “We have to keep what sells.
There are sizes we love, but we have to nar-
row that portfolio.” As an aside, he reveals
that “we took down all our blends from
our websites; we want to keep it as vague
as possible. All we want to say is that it’s
tobacco. The worst thing now would be to
list country of want to keep it as
broad as possible, but we already lost a lot
of brands.”
From where Perez-Carrillo sits, “we’re
a new company and all four of our lines
will have to be changed and blended with
more predicate date blends—I will prob-
ably be knocking on Rocky Patel’s doors
for that,” he says.
The “FDA Failings”
Conversation
The way Patel sees it, “The FDA has not
learned about our business; they’ve not
spent time to learn it. It is so different
C I GAR SENSE
Unless regulations change, relatively new boutique companies will
need to reblend their products to incorporate predicate date blends.