Altadis U.S.A., Drew Estate & General Eye Exhibiting at PCA 2024

Three of the four companies that pulled out of the PCA Convention & Trade Show in early 2020 are seriously considering returning to the cigar industry’s most important trade show in 2024.

Altadis U.S.A., Drew Estate and Scandinavian Tobacco Group’s General Cigar Co./Forged Cigar Co. are all looking into exhibiting at PCA 2024, which takes place March 22-25 in Las Vegas. Multiple sources have told halfwheel that they expect all three to exhibit in 2024. Notably, those are three of the four companies that announced in 2020 they would no longer exhibit at the PCA Convention & Trade Show.

While that announcement was made in 2020, it’s not to say that the companies stopped participating altogether. All three will be present at this year’s trade show in very different ways.

Earlier this week, Altadis U.S.A. was added to the list of 2023 exhibitors early this week, albeit with three smaller booths instead of the large presence the company historically had.

When asked about the decision to return to 2023 and plans for 2024, Rafael Nodal—head of product capability for Tabacalera USA, which includes Altadis U.S.A.—told halfwheel that an announcement would be made soon. It’s unclear whether that’s referencing 2023 or 2024, though Nodal previously confirmed the company was considering exhibiting at both.

STG’s Forged Cigar Co. will be present at this year’s trade show in a booth purchased by Alec Bradley, which STG acquired in February. This is the second year in a row that STG will be an exhibitor because of a company it purchased. Last year, STG purchased Room101 shortly before PCA 2022, and Forged Cigar Co. sales representatives were present in the Room101 booth.

Régis Broersma, president and svp of STG’s North America Branded and Rest of World division, told halfwheel that STG has not decided regarding PCA 2024 and that the company needed to have dialogue with the Premium Cigar Association.

Unlike the other two companies, Drew Estate will not have a booth, but a small number of its employees will be in Joya de Nicaragua’s booth. Drew Estate distributes Joya de Nicaragua in the U.S. While Drew Estate sales representatives will be in the Joya booth, they will only take orders for Joya de Nicaragua products while on the trade show floor.

Glenn Wolfson, ceo of Drew Estate, told halfwheel that no decision has been made about PCA 2024, though the company is committed to TPE 2024, a competing trade show that takes place in late January, also in Las Vegas.

“The recent announcement that PCA 2024 will take place in late March rather than July is a compelling and enticing turn of events that deserves and has our full attention,” said Wolfson in a statement to halfwheel. “We are certainly aware of and understand the industry-wide speculation surrounding the possibility of Drew Estate returning to the PCA show in 2024.  Given PCA’s move to an earlier position on the calendar, we plan to expedite our discussions about our potential participation at PCA 2024 and we will share the outcome of these discussions soon.”

In early 2020, the three companies—along with Davidoff of Geneva USA—announced they would not exhibit at the 2020 PCA Convention & Trade Show, which was ultimately canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The companies outlined a long list of issues that caused them to pull out of the trade show that boiled down to three main categories:

1. The ROI from the trade show was declining. Due to increased costs, declining attendance and a lack of potential new customers, the trade show was no longer as profitable as it once was. At the time, one company said it determined the trade show was no longer profitable.
2. The companies have no voting power in the PCA as an organization. The companies argued that it was unfair that the PCA’s largest financial contributors had no say about how the organization used the proceeds from the trade show. This was especially sensitive regarding issues related to online retailers, as three of the four companies have online storefronts.
3. The PCA didn’t address their concerns. The organization rebranded from International Premium Cigar and Pipe Retailers Association (IPCPR) to Premium Cigar Association (PCA) in 2019. Prior to IPCPR 2019, these four companies, as well as Perdomo, declined to reserve booth space for the 2020 trade show due to the aforementioned issues. That led to meetings between PCA leadership and the companies. The four companies felt like the PCA did not address their concerns.

It’s unclear what, if any, of those concerns each of these companies feel have now been addressed.

The result was a massive financial blow to the PCA, simultaneously compounded and obscured by the oncoming COVID-19 pandemic and the cancellation of the 2020 trade show. At the time, halfwheel estimated that these four companies reserved 18.17 of the booth space that was sold at IPCPR 2019—the PCA disputed this figure and said it was 12 percent—and likely were responsible for at least $750,000 of the trade show’s revenue due to large booths and sponsorships.

While the financial impacts of the 2020 decisions are still murky, these companies’ absences have been obvious at PCA 2021 and PCA 2022. For 2023, the trade show floor remains smaller than it was in 2019. Immediately following the four companies’ announcement, the PCA said that “many exhibitors have reached out to PCA to secure booth space, potentially expand their footprint, or relocate to the vacated space.”

While exhibitors like Arturo Fuente, Gurkha, J.C. Newman, My Father, Padrón, Rocky Patel and Tatuaje continue to use roughly the same space they did in 2019, many of their contemporaries have reduced their booth sizes. That list includes Ashton, Miami Cigar & Co., Oliva, Perdomo and Quality Importers Trading Co. While there has been growth due to smaller booths getting larger or new booths, like El Septimo Geneva, the increases haven’t offset the losses and the trade show occupies a smaller space than it did in 2019.

All of that reduced space is lost revenue for the Premium Cigar Association, which is one of the reasons why getting these three companies back to exhibiting would be a big deal. The vast majority of the PCA’s revenue—at one point, arguably 90 percent—was tied to the PCA Convention & Trade Show.

There is also a hope that getting these companies back—by some metrics, the three largest in the American cigar business—should also help with declining retailer attendance. The 2021 and 2022 PCA Convention & Trade Shows had the lowest retail attendance since at least 2014, and likely further back.

It seems the PCA’s decision to move the trade show from its historical dates in mid-summer to late March is already paying off. Wolfson’s (Drew Estate) recent statement specifically identified the date change and a previous statement from Broersma (STG) also highlighted the move to March as a positive.

One company that does not seem likely to return is Davidoff of Geneva USA. Dylan Austin, president of Davidoff Americas, declined to comment.

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.