TOB Magazine

How does Diesel fit into the

company’s portfolio and what are

your plans for marketing it?

Diesel Grind came to us as a successful brand,

and with that we have an opportunity right

out of the gate. Diesel Grind adds an edge to

our portfolio, one that opens the door to a new

consumer for us. This is a brand for a bold

smoker who wants a brand [he or she] can

relate to. It’s modern and unapologetic, and

we see Diesel Grind becoming the cult clas-

sic in our portfolio. We’re going to build the

brand in ways that speak to that spirit.

Was it a risk? Of course it was. There is

always friction between B&M and I/C, but I

strongly believed that I/C could give something

back to B&M, so we took a chance and test-

ed the theory. This was a calculated risk, and

it paid off for us. Diesel Grind is a brand sold

online by our sister company, Cigars Interna-

tional (CI), and over the last decade the brand

has continued to grow. By offering Diesel Grind

to B&M, our retailers would get a brand that

has proven itself already with strong demand

from consumers. We added marketing power,

this time from GCC [General Cigar Company]

and CI combined, and gave it to B&M retailers

with great margins.

At IPCPR, we showed that Diesel Grind

is bigger and has better branding than a lot

of the boutique cigars on the market. We also

communicated that Diesel Grind gives retail-

ers the chance to connect with a consumer

base unlike that which we have with any oth-

er GCC brand. B&M can finally benefit from

I/C. It could have been the biggest flop in

GCC launch history, but the B&M community

has grabbed the opportunity with both hands,

and Diesel Grind was one of our biggest sur-

prises at the IPCPR show. Our risk paid off.

ON BUILDING BRANDS…

How do you go about creating and

maintaining strong individual brand

identities while operating within a

larger entity?

We have always taken an individual approach

to marketing our brands, and my team and

I are working to take this even further. CAO

is a perfect example. When we took over the

brand, people thought we’d change the blends

or somehow disconnect with the brand’s val-

ues. The opposite was true. We built a great

team to support the brand.

They operated as a stand-alone unit, and we

empowered Rick Rodriguez to lead blending

and gave Ed McKenna (director of marketing)

the green light to take risks. The team used

our access to tobacco to create blends that had

never been seen before in the category. CAO

continues to break boundaries. Just look at the

Amazon Trilogy. Building on the cigar lover’s

expectations for new and exciting things from

the brand, we introduced three blends with

three different Brazilian tobaccos that were

never available outside of Brazil. These cigars

sold out immediately at IPCPR and [are] rac-

ing off the shelves in record time.

CAO is just one example. Each brand has

its own distinct identity, and everything flows

from that. Macanudo’s tagline is “Evolution

of an Icon,” and that speaks to the mod-

ernization of the brand. With Punch, we’re

focused on the brand’s Honduran heritage

and leveraging Mr. Punch to connect with

cigar lovers. La Gloria Cubana is the origi-

nal boutique brand, and we’re supporting

the line with connections to the people who

made the brand the success it is today. Cohi-

ba is purely about luxury. Partagás speaks to

those in the know, and we’re working to con-

temporize aspects of the brand to increase its

relevance to today’s preferences. For Toraño,

we’re rebuilding the brand, working with Jack

Regis

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