Weekly News (July 19, 2010)

Wow… IPCPR must be coming up as there is tons of news. The Torano Family took back control of the company from CAO, renaming it Toraño Family Cigar Company. They also announced three new cigars: Master by Carlos Toraño, Single Region and the Brigade. Bovedá and Humidipak also saw a change of distribution, now being controlled domestically by Ashton. Camacho signed a partnership with Bayer CropScience. CAO gave away a beautiful motorcycle this weekend.

My Father Cigars Inc. announced Jose Oretga will replace John Gonzales as VP of US Sales, while Gonzales will focus on the new markets in Europe and Asia. New cigar speaking, Miami Cigar Co. announced that the Nestor Miranda Special Selection Danno would receive a new wrapper and showed off the Nestor Miranda Art Deco. Arango Cigar Co. launched its newest cigar Yeowww! (I’m trying to order some now) Edit: Tatuaje also began shipping Pete’s newest creation… well sort of. The La Vérité will hit select retailers soon.

It was a busy week for General Cigar Co. First, they won in court regarding the Cohiba trademark, they they announced their plans to celebrate fifty years. Speaking of legal battles, Guantanamera Cigars will acquire Guantanamera Rum and then proceed its ongoing legal battle with the Cuban rendition of the cigar label. Also, Lorillard, maker of a bunch of cigaretttes, filed an extension regarding its opposition of El Triufador, the trademark used by Tatuaje. Pete expressed to me his feelings regarding that, here.

The CRA issued a “Call to Action” regarding Michael Bloomberg’s most recent proposal regarding smoking. Barry at acigarsmoker.com had some very true comments. Tom at Cigar Reader believes this new rise in taxes and other anti-smoking legislation has led to a drop in the amount of New York tobacconists that plan on being at the IPCPR show.

Finally, James Suckling retired as the European (Cuban) Editor of Cigar Aficionado.

As promised another guess for the IPCPR show… I foresee the Alec Bradley American Classic.

P.S. Stay tuned for another announcement of free cigars.

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.