PDR Cigars Announces Price Increase

Citing a number of factors, PDR Cigars has announced that it is increasing prices across the majority of its portfolio.

It’s an increase of between 5 and 15 percent on the retail prices throughout the company’s portfolio, though the increase does not apply to the Jose Rey line, which features three sweet-tipped blends, or to the Devil’s Weed line, which are pouches containing two leaves of wrapper tobacco. The change went into effect on Jan. 11.

Abe Flores of PDR Cigars said that the increases are due to several years of FDA-related expenses as the company prepared for the agency’s regulation of premium cigars. The COVID-19 pandemic has also been a factor as the factory needed to implement social distancing protocols and modifications such as barriers on the tables. It has also reduced the factory’s production capacity to approximately 50 percent of normal.

Tobacco costs were also cited as a reason to implement the increase, as Flores said that the company has been using more A-quality fillers, binders and wrappers, which means higher costs to procure that tobacco from suppliers. On the positive side, Flores said that “this means we are now back to being a smaller boutique producer and have more control over our quality and consistency.”

The following chart is a live look at what companies have announced price increases or no price increase for 2021.

Company	Price Increase
A.J. Fernandez	No
Alec Bradley	No
Altadis U.S.A.	Yes
Arturo Fuente	Yes
Ashton	Yes
Asylum	Yes
Battleground	No
Black Label Trading Co.	No
Blackbird		Caldwell	Yes
Casa Cuevas	Yes
Chinnock Cellars	No
CLE	Yes
Crowned Heads	No
Cubariqueño	No
Curivari	Yes
E.P. Carrillo	Yes
El Artista	No
Esteban Carreras	Yes
Falto	No
Foundation	Yes
General Cigar Co.	Yes
Global Premium Cigars	Yes
Gran Habano	No
Gurkha	No
HVC	No
J.C. Newman	Yes
Jas Sum Kral	No
Jeremy Jack	Yes
JRE Tobacco Co.	Yes
Kristoff	No
La Barba	Yes
La Flor Dominicana	No
La Galera/Indianhead Tobacco	No
Los Caidos	No
Maya Selva	Yes
Miami Cigar & Co.	No
Mombacho Cigars S.A.	No
MoyaRuiz	No
My Father	No
Oliva	Yes
Padilla	Yes
Padrón	No
Patoro	No
Paul Garmirian	No
Paul Stulac	No
PDR Cigars	Yes
Perdomo	Yes
Plasencia 1865	No
Pure Aroma Cigars/D'Crossier	No
Quesada	No
RoMa Craft Tobac	No
RVGN Rauchvergnügen	No
Sans Pareil/La Instructora	No
Sinistro	No
Southern Draw	No
Stallone	Yes

Update (Jan. 17, 2021) — Flores clarified that the increase was on the retail prices, as well as that it went into effect on Jan. 11. Those details were not available at the time of publication.