While it might seem like cigar prices are increasing across the board, for every company that is raising prices, about one seems to be avoiding the increase. After its national sales meeting, Miguel Schoedel, national sales manager for Toraño Family Cigar Company, told halfwheel that the prices of Toraño and Leccia, which Toraño distributes, will not be increasing. For most companies, the annual sales meeting will be when these increases are historically announced. For example, Schoedel’s counterpart at La Flor Dominicana, Jon Carney, told halfwheel he did not expect the increase would come, but the sales meeting was next week, so there was still room for that to change. Carney was not the only one unable to definitively commit. Representatives at Gurkha and Rocky Patel told halfwheel nothing was on the table right now, but there was no hard commitment. Pete Johnson, who historically had avoided price increases as much as any, indicated this year would be tough given rising tobacco costs, but believed he could avoid raises prices for his two companies, Havana Cellars/Tatuaje and L’Atelier Imports. One company was quite confident. Alex Goldman of Royal Gold Cigars told halfwheel the company would not be raising prices on “its ...
↧