Discontinuation question

[Vortigan]

Just a point of general intrigue really.What are the market forces (or others) that bring about the discontinuation of any given cigar?.I suppose the catalyst for the question is The Dip #4.The comments it receives among everyone here shows that it has clearly been an extremely popular and well loved cigar.So I'm guessing that if the members of FOH are in any way representative of global BOTL's then I'm assuming,perhaps wildly,that it isn't simply a question of sales,or the lack of,that bring about the discontinuation of a cigar.Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.Cheers,

Mike

[CaptainQuintero]

I've thought that same. I mean look at the R&J lineup, I've wondered about trying them but there must be 20 different sticks, I have no idea where to start and that must put off a lot of people who are new to CC. I can't see all of that lineup being worth their while but instead of trimming the lineup they pretty much decimate Dip etc..

Unless there is a reason we don't know, for example the factory which made Dip was on the brink of falling down etc I don't see some of the logic behind the decisions.

You would think if they need to change things up drastically then have each marka have just 6 vitola each, robusto, half corona, corona, long and skinny, churchill, DC. Stop production of everything else apart from the ones which your data shows sells very well, then from there remove/add here and there according to how the market reacts.

Unless tHabanos have a new marka lined up, I can only imagine they are making the deletions so they can make more RE/LE which kind of flies in the face of people having favourite regular production cigars.

just my rambling two cents lol

[cigcars]

*I wish I knew! But I wish I knew MORE if LCDH will listen to us disgruntled, broken-hearted habana lovers who miss our favorite, now discontinued, vitolas!

[Dbone]

Its a business, and they're in business to make money. If there's little or no profit, if cost cutting can decrease overhead, or resources better spent on another product.... that item will hit the chopping block.

I can probably guess you're looking for a better answer than that, Vort, but that's my take anyway.

[gigabyte056]

Dip 4 was competing with Monte 4, the monte sells 1m a month the - dip maybe 25k, hence cut.

Logical but annoying

[Vortigan]

Dip 4 was competing with Monte 4, the monte sells 1m a month the - dip maybe 25k, hence cut.

Logical but annoying

Yes that makes a lot of sense.I suppose I was thinking of sales,profit,overheads etc in terms of Habanos SA and not factoring in the individual rolling houses with their own individual business issues.

[riazp]

very annoying, I just recently discovered the dip 4 and I absolutly loved it, much much much much more than the ever inconsisten overproduced monte 4

[Nocoins]

I don't think of one Habanos cigar as competing with another Habanos cigar. They are all produced and sold by a state-owned company. Each Cuban cigar is a Tabacuba/HSA cigar with a different band. I think the main reasons the Monte 4 outsold the Dip 4 include the number of sales outlets for each and the average Joe's familiarity with the name "Montecristo." HSA can sell millions of Montes because they are Montes, and many average people know the famous brand/label, presume they are superior, and buy them over another cigar they may not have heard of before. Sales drives cancellations, but this is not the same as true competition between independent cigar companies.

[Omskakas]

How about availability of different tobacco? What if they have plenty of (bad?) RyJ tobacco to make a lot of cigars and just a little of (good?) tobacco to make Diplos. If HSA wants to use that diplo tobacco for more profitable (LE's, RE's, Cohibas, Montes) cigars Diplos will be discontinued. This is just an example I pulled out of my head but you get the point.

[El Presidente]

It was a shortsighted decision based upon sales alone.

The FOH community does not reflect the cigar buying public. In the main the community here has a good level of knowledge or is seeking to develop one.

23% of global HSA sales are at Duty Free outlets. If I remember correctly Cuba accounts for a similar level of sales (within Cuba). Both are primarilly the domain of people not necessarilly clued into Diplomatico, LGC, SLR etc. They know Monte, R&J, Cohiba and to a lesser extent Partagas.

Diplomatico's strength was Europe. Sales in that part of the world are off some 30% from the peak. Much of the slack has been taken up by China where Montecristo, R&J, Cohiba are the brands of choice.

Tobacco advertising laws worldwide, restrictions on cigar/tobacco displays etc also impact on the lesser known brands. It is hard to get the message out.

There is hope. PLPC also left us for a number of years before being reintroduced. I hope that the same is done with Diplomatico. Having a one cigar line will not work.

[BobKincaid]

"It was a shortsighted decision based upon sales alone."

Nice to see the capitalists aren't the only ones letting the bean-counters run the shop. It's always such a successful strategy! /sarcasm

[Vortigan]

Thanks for the input everyone.I know it was essentially a fairly simplistic question so it's nice to learn a little bit from you all about the finer points of how it all works behind the scenes.Thanks again guys

[Ghabanos]

very annoying, I just recently discovered the dip 4 and I absolutly loved it, much much much much more than the ever inconsisten overproduced monte 4

Not a fan of monte4