Villiger Cigars North America Not Attending IPCPR 2019

Villiger Cigars North America has announced that it will not be attending next month’s IPCPR Convention & Trade Show becoming the most prominent name to date to opt out of attending the industry’s largest trade show.

The company did not give a reason for its decision not to attend the show, but did say that it was directing its “efforts towards the Tobacco Plus Expo,” a trade show operated by Kretek International which will take place next January. While IPCPR focuses primarily on cigars, TPE is a smaller, but growing tobacco trade show where cigars are one of a number of product categories. Kretek made a push this past year to increase participation by premium cigar manufacturers.

“As we all know the (IPCPR) as an organization does an amazing job of catering to the handmade premium cigar segment,” said Rene Castañeda, Villiger North America president, in a press release. “Villiger at its core is a cigar company that produces premium handmade cigars, cigarillos, premium machine-made cigars, and pipe tobacco. For this reason, we as a company have decided to direct all our efforts toward the Tobacco Plus Expo (TPE) in Las Vegas, Nevada this upcoming January 29-31, 2020.”

Villiger’s presence at the show has varied over the years but the company recently had a medium-sized booth. As of March, its name was not on the list of companies attending the show according to the IPCPR.

Last year, halfwheel listed 32 companies who did not attend the trade show but had attended previous shows. Villiger, particularly as an overall company, is a much larger operation than any of the companies on that list.

Villiger said it would make a donation to the IPCPR, which—in addition to running the trade show—works on lobbying efforts for cigars locally and nationally.

The 2019 IPCPR Convention & Trade Show begins June 28 in Las Vegas, Nev.