Weekly News (January 20, 2014)

Editor’s Note: It would appear we are heading back to New Orleans for IPCPR 2015, and I am okay with it, sort of.

It’s nothing against New Orleans—it would be my second choice to Las Vegas amongst any major city in America, but the IPCPR is not doing itself any service by constantly moving the trade show around.

The IPCPR show and its closest counterpart, the European Inter-tabac trade show are polar opposites. While one fails to stay in the same place for more than two years, the other one is in Dortmund, Germany—even if it’s not really legal—ever year.

What Inter-tabac has created is a sense of familiarity and stability amongst the trade show, its exhibitors and attendees. I remember various people that are part of the convention center staff each year, I remember where the bathrooms are, the best places to park and that your credit card is useless within the Westfalenhallen.

Yes, that’s right, your credit card is useless.

They take cash, or cash. AMEX, Mastercard, Visa—you can leave all of them inside your hotel room because once you set foot inside the Westfalenhallen, cash is pretty much the only way to pay anything. With the exception of paying for the actual space—which can be done by wire transfer—and registration, almost everything else is largely paid for by cash.

For attendees, that’s fine. It’s less than €100 on food throughout the weekend, but for exhibitors it’s a thick envelope. Electricity, internet, cleaning, furniture rental, moving services, storage and other fees almost must be paid for in cash, thousands of euros.

If this were to be the policy at this year’s IPCPR trade show, it would be a catastrophic problem. Even if you removed the fact that we are talking about a foreign country and a language barrier at Inter-tabac, the amount of people who would think to bring $25,000 in cash to Las Vegas to pay for cleaning and booth transport is slim.

At Inter-tabac, it’s not a problem. Everyone knows, it’s cash only, just like it was last year, and the year before that, and the year before that.

The IPCPR claims that its 2012 show in Orlando had better attendance, something my eyes could not confirm, but whether it’s Orlando, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Dallas or Detroit—the IPCPR could do itself a favor and make a commitment to staying in one place for a sizable period of time.

Manufacturers waste tons of money shipping booths back and forth each year when they could easily just store them for a much lower fee. Retailers could have the options to write-off timeshares—but better yet—you would know where to eat, what roads to avoid, what to bring and you might even know who the friendlier employees are.

For all the chaos and uneasiness that can be the trade show, familiarity would be a welcome for most, halfwheel included.

I’ve heard that part of the reason or leaving Las Vegas (pun not intended) is due to issues with the convention hosts in Las Vegas. Whether or not that’s true, I imagine a five-year commitment would probably present a different situation. The problem is, it does not appear the IPCPR members as a whole, i.e. the retailers, want to make a commitment to Las Vegas, or any city for that matter.

IPCPR 2017 could be in the City of Utopia and retailers would still complain, as they do each and every year no matter the city. Why they complain is beyond me, but there is no better city capable of handling this event (or most any other trade show) than Las Vegas.

For better or worse—never mind, for better—we as members do not get to vote on where the trade show is hosted. My unsolicited one would read something like: Las Vegas 2015-2019, but if that’s not possible, drop me off in New Orleans. Take it away Kermit.

• IPCPR 2015 Likely Heading to New Orleans — Details are here, my thoughts are what you scrolled over above.
• La Reloba Makeover Planned — Details here.
• Toraño Limited Edition Vault Gold VLE100 — Here.
• Oliva Serie V Double Toro Now Scheduled for February — Story here.
• Ortega Serie D Black in the Works — Here.
• 601 La Bomba Bunker Buster Emerges — First release is next month, picture is here.
• New EH Cigars project:

• La Jugada Nunchucks Shows Itself Off — Picture here.
• Oettinger Davidoff AG Reorganizes in Spain — The press release is here. If you are wondering why this might be big, Spain is arguably the second most important market after the U.S., but it has some of the most backwards laws about distributing cigars.
• Warped Cigars Previews 2014 Release — From El Titan de Bronze it would seem:

For the next few weeks, we will likely be reporting on price increases. As such, I’ve decided to add a special subsection to the Weekly News, which will be updated every week. I will bold the most recent updates in order to better keep track.

• Altadis U.S.A. — Here.
• Fabricas Unidas — Here.
• General Cigar Co. — Here.
• La Flor Dominicana — No increase planned.
• Miami Cigar & Co. — No increase planned.
• Oliva — Here.
• RoMa Craft Tobac — Here.
• Quesada Cigars — Here.

• Bullitt County, Ky. — Public smoking ban enacted.
• Cedar Grove, N.J. — Smoking ban debated.
• Florida — Playground smoking ban advances.
• Lakewood, Wash. — Park smoking ban proposed.
• Rehoboth Beach, Del. — Beach smoking ban proposed.
• Weatherford, Texas — Eyes smoking ban.

Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.