October 4, 2010 Charlie Minato Weekly News

Weekly News (October 4, 2010)

This past week has been nothing but crazy. Only a few hours after posting the news for the week of September 28th, Dion Giolito of Illusione dropped a bomb: the Nosotros partnership with Drew Estate is over. Pete Johnson launched his new website and gave details on the newest edition of the Monster Series, The Face. Alec Bradley released three new sizes of the Family Blend. Alan Rubin’s company also hired a new VP of Marketing, Sam Phillips. Camacho shipped the new Room 101 LTD Conjura Edition. Finally, Ernesto Padilla showed off his new Artemis with a band and a cigar.

The Swedish Match/Scandinavian Tobacco deal was finalized, bringing CAO, Dunhill and Macanudo under the same roof as General Cigar Co. Altadis launched the latest edition of “Operation Hope”, benefiting its World of Montecristo Relief Organization. Tom Ufer has been stalking Davidoff’s new headquarters. The future of the former Thompson Cigar Factory seems not great.

Storms are brewing in Cuba. This isn’t great news, especially considering the state newspaper just reported that the coffee harvest was the worst of all time. In other Cuban news, the House delayed the vote on Cuban travel.

In legal news, Dunhill decided that Discount Cigars had too similar of a “D” in their logo. The lawsuit over Xikar’s use of the word “Havana” is going to court. In other Habanos S.A. news, Altadis filed opposition against Habanos S.A., which is odd considering they own half of the Cuban cigar arm. In international news, the Canadians are having difficulty with their flavored tobacco problems and Finland increased its strict tobacco standards.

The award for stupidest act of the week goes to some idiot Reds’ fan that was concerned that lighting up some Liga Privadas in the clubhouse after clinching playoff birth.

Alan Rubin Alec Bradley Artemis Camachomacho Canada CAO Congress Cuba Davidoff Dion Giolito Discount Cigars Drew Estate Dunhill Ernesto Padilla Family Blend Finlad General Cigar Co. Habanos S.A. House of Representatives Jason Wood Jonathan Drew José “Pepín” García Lawsuit Liga Privada LTD Conjura Edition Macanudo Montecristo Nosotros Operation Hope Padilla Pete Johnson Reds Room101 Scandinavian Tobacco Group Swedish Match Tatiana The Face XIKAR
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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.

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