General Cigar Co. has informed retailers of an impending price increase set to take effect Oct. 3, 2016. The company, which is one of the largest premium cigar companies in the world, has explicitly said this increase is due to regulatory compliance costs as a result of the U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s (FDA) new regulations of premium cigars. “Given the recent FDA regulations, it is necessary to raise prices to offset a portion of the increased regulatory costs and compliance expenses,” said Regis Broersma, ceo of General Cigar Co., in a letter to retailers. Most of the company’s cigars will increase in price ranging from 10-80 cents per cigar with a small number of lines, mostly those introduced at this year’s IPCPR Convention & Trade Show, avoiding a price increase. For Macanudo, most cigars will increase 20-30 cents—with some lower and higher—and Gold Label and Mao not increasing in price. Curiously, there doesn’t seem to be much of a pattern to this increase, only that the increases are roughly in line with the cost of the product, i.e. cigars that cost $3.50 are not seeing 60 cent price increases while $15 cigars are only raised 10 cents. Many of the lines increasing ...
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