Alec Bradley’s PCA 2023 Booth Becomes Forged Cigar Co. Booth

For the second year in a row, Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG)—the parent of General Cigar Co., Cigars International and others—will be exhibiting at the PCA Convention & Trade Show. Also for the second year in a row, it will be doing so in a space that was originally purchased by a cigar company that STG ended up acquiring.

Today, the Premium Cigar Association (PCA), which hosts the trade show, announced that STG’s Forged Cigar Co. will be exhibiting at PCA 2023. Forged will be using the space that was purchased by Alec Bradley Cigar Co. Last month, STG announced that it purchased Alec Bradley and it was moving the company’s brands into Forged Cigar Co., whose portfolio also includes brands like Diesel, El Rey del Mundo, La Gloria Cubana, Partagas and Room101.

Similarly, last year STG sent Forged Cigar Co. employees and products to be part of the Room101 booth at the 2022 PCA Convention & Trade Show, which took place less than one month after STG purchased Room101. There are some major differences between the two situations; for example, Alec Bradley’s booth is much larger than the Room101 booth, and this booth will be branded as Forged, whereas the Room101 booth was still largely the Room101 booth.

Last year, Forged’s Sancho Panza brand was on display in the Room101 booth.

This is notable because of the trade show absence of Forged Cigar Co.’s sister company, General Cigar Co., whose portfolio includes brands like CAO, Cohiba, Macanudo, Punch and others.

In 2019, General—along with Altadis U.S.A., Davidoff of Geneva USA and Drew Estate—announced it would not be exhibiting at the 2020 PCA Convention & Trade Show. Those four companies—four of the largest in the American cigar business—represented roughly 18 percent of the trade show floor in 2019. The 2020 trade show was ultimately canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but none of the companies exhibited at PCA 2021 or PCA 2022, and none of those four are listed as PCA 2023 exhibitors. All four have had a presence at the show, largely through sister companies that are retailers, but this will be the most obvious presence that any of the four have had since 2019.

General Cigar Co. will not be exhibiting at PCA 2023.

“We are very pleased with the recent, retailer-focused changes the PCA organization has made to the annual tradeshow and have decided to renew our participation beginning this year,” said Régis Broersma, president of STG’s North America and Rest of World division, in a press release. ”Moving future PCA shows to March was a pivotal factor in our decision to come back to the show. The new timing not only aligns with our business cycle but it is also advantageous for our customers which is of the utmost importance to us.”

Last week, the Premium Cigar Association announced that the 2024 PCA Convention & Trade Show will take place in March 22-25, a radical departure from the trade show’s traditional summer dates.

Despite the quote above, Broersma told halfwheel that STG is not committed to exhibiting at PCA 2024.

The 2023 PCA Convention & Trade Show takes places July 8-11 at the Venetian Expo Center.