Who owns jr cigars

Lew and LaVonda Rothman opened their small, corner candy and tobacco store in , just three years before cigar sales surged to an all-time high, and then began their steady year decline. The business, originally named JR Tobacco after Lew's father, Jack Rothman, quickly outgrew its original location at 6th Avenue and 45th Street in Manhattan, New York, and went from being a "mom and pop' shop to a bustling wholesale and direct mail retail operation. According to Barron's, the early s marked a social backlash against the fit, careerist, Yuppie lifestyle that had been promoted and caricatured in the s, and JR Cigar benefited from the shift.

Helped by good times on Wall Street, the cigar industry indirectly encouraged many recently arrived professionals to explore new avenues of decadence. Cigars became associated with the sort of "refined rebellion' championed by the Baby Boomers, then or something and enjoying a time of life that lent itself to reveling in success.

Between and , as the Dow climbed threefold, sales of premium cigar brands rose more than fourfold. An estimated million cigars were imported into the United States in All of this spelled good news for JR Cigar, which by then ranked as one of the largest distributors and retailers of premium and mass market cigars in the United States and the largest customer of each of the world's largest cigar manufacturers.

Premium cigar imports increased an average of Yet according to Rothman, major manufacturers, who increased their production by 50 percent or more, still could not meet the distribution demands of a swelling market. About six million Cuban cigars began to be smuggled into the United States yearly, but even these could not match the needs of this country's estimated one million premium cigar smokers, whose demand created a situation in which there were 80 million cigars on back order.

By , the scarcity of premium, brand name products caused a horde of start-up companies, some foreign. As many as small manufacturers of inferior cigars sprang up to meet the new need to provide smokers with the perishable product they desired, inundating the American market with lower-quality cigars. These "Don Nobodies' sold for as much as the better quality, better known brands due to a supply and demand imbalance. The established premium companies, whose products accounted for 40 percent of sales in dollar terms ten percent of product sold , faced further competition from another set of foreign companies, mostly Caribbean, that used the shortage to establish a bigger foothold in the United States for their handmade cigar brands.

In addition, the renaissance in cigar smoking drove up prices--by as much as 20 percent per year on premium products. This increase largely accounted for the wholesale price of quality tobacco leaf which went into premium cigar wrappers and which took at least three years to develop from seed to rolling desk. Then, in the late s, the situation reversed. By the major manufacturers had caught up with production demands, and there developed an industry surplus consisting mainly of cigars with no brand equity.

Rothman began purchasing overruns and factory seconds from cigar manufacturers and pushed them hard in his store. Within half a year, JR Cigar became a destination for cigar consumers who knew they were going to get the best deals in the city from Rothman and his store. Like any tobacconist, Rothman adjusted his strategy as time progressed in order to stay ahead of his competitors. As the s progressed, Rothman continued to grow and expand the JR Cigar brand. With brands like Macanudo, Hoyo de Monterrey, Punch and Royal Jamaica, Rothman was able to transform his retail operation and offer its customers even more value through its own branded products, such as the JR Alternative.

Launched in , JR Alternative was conceived as a cigar that imitated the taste of some of the most popular cigars of the time. These cigars were sold in count bundles and offered at competitive prices. The success of JR Alternative allowed Rothman to reinvest in his store. With some of the profits from the cigar, Rothman hired three new employees who were tasked with handling the sales of these value-priced cigars.

In the s, though he had a successful retail and wholesale business, Rothman grew JR Cigar with the addition of new stores in Manhattan. By , business was booming, and JR Cigar was beginning to outgrow its home offices in New York, prompting it to move to a much larger facility in Fairfield, New Jersey.

Much like its New Jersey facility, the Selma location housed a warehouse and superstore that offered cigars in addition to many other products.

Due to the many cigar smokers that traveled from northeastern states through North Carolina to reach Florida, JR Cigar eventually added another super-store to Statesville, North Carolina, which is located 90 miles east of Selma. The famed Cigar Boom kicked off in , and as the demand for premium cigars increased, so did business for JR Cigar, which by then was ranked as one of the largest distributors and retailers of premium and mass-market cigars in the world.

Flor de Copan is far smaller, but also makes many cigars. The cigar brands that come with this deal are considerable, and include the non-Cuban versions of Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta, H. Upmann, Henry Clay and many more. The chain of Casa de Montecristo cigar stores , high-end stores spread around the U. In October, there were 28; one is expected to open soon in Puerto Rico.

The buyers created investment vehicles to make the deals. Cuba Altadis U. Habanos S. More in Cigar Industry See all. Cigar Shipments Continue to Climb Shipments of premium, handmade cigars continue to impress. Nov 11, Nov 10,