Most of the companies we cover at the trade show can be served by a pretty cookie-cutter approach: what are your new items, when are they shipping, how much do they cost, etc. The Cigar Ashtray is one of the few companies on the trade show floor that could make me a physical cookie cutter—it uses CNC to make ashtrays out of blocks of aluminum—but the cookie-cutter approach doesn’t work.
The booth is a simple 10 x 10 with tables full of tons of products. In case you didn’t figure this out, the company makes ashtrays.
Leon Jorjorian was very nice and happy to answer my questions, even if he has no clue what this website does or doesn’t do. The basics of the company are that it is based in El Paso, Texas and makes a variety of products out of billet aluminum, meaning that each ashtray starts as a solid block.
From there, the company uses a CNC machine to create the shape of the ashtray and then has a process to powder coat the ashtrays to add color.
Retail prices range from $26-175 per ashtray. Notably, the company can do custom engraving with no minimum, meaning this would be a great option for gifts.