We get the question by email most weeks, from Riyadh, Singapore, Geneva and once from Reykjavik: how do we become your distributor? This is the answer we send back, written out once so it is the same for everyone.
A distributor, in the cigar trade, is the company that imports a house's cigars into a country, clears them, stores them properly, and sells them to the boutiques, lounges and hotels that serve the smoker. It is a job of paperwork, humidity and relationships, in that order. A new house cannot do it from Manila, and does not want to. What it wants is one good partner per market who knows the counters, and it will wait for that partner rather than sign the first company that asks.
What we look for
Three things, none of them size. First, a licence: you can already import and sell tobacco in your country, with the excise registration that goes with it, or you are well on the way. Second, counters: you already sell to the places where premium cigars are smoked, or you run one yourself. A distributor with ten good lounges is worth more to us than one with a hundred kiosks. Third, a humidor. Cigars that sit in a warehouse at ambient temperature are ruined before they are sold, and we would rather not sell them than have that happen.
What we give back
An origin that nobody else in your market has. Three vitolas and two boxes, so the range is easy to learn and easy to stock. Films, photographs, a tasting guide and a training session, so your salespeople have something to say beyond the price. Margins in line with the premium trade, set out in the partner terms rather than on a website. And the attention of a small house: when you write, a person answers, usually the same day.
“The distributors who do well with a new house are the ones who like telling a story. The ones who only like moving boxes do better with the big brands.”The house · notes from the first year
The steps
One, the enquiry, through the form on the Partners page: company, country, licence status, the counters you serve, the brands you already carry. Two, a call, within a week, to hear how you work and tell you how we do. Three, the tasting kit, three vitolas sent to you, paid and deducted from the first order, because a distributor should taste before signing. Four, the terms: territory, volumes, prices, the venue kit, all in writing. Five, the first order, from 1,000 cigars, shipped CIF to your port. Six, the launch: a humidor for your first counters, a training session, and an evening with someone from the house if the calendar allows.
On exclusivity
We do not grant it at signature, and a distributor who insists on it before selling a single box is telling us something. We agree territory and volumes case by case, and exclusivity follows when a market is proven, on terms that make it worth keeping. In practice this has never been a problem for a partner who sells.
The mistakes we have seen
Ordering more than the humidor can hold. Launching in three cities at once instead of one street well. Discounting to move stock, which teaches the market the wrong price and cannot be untaught. Forgetting the staff: a cigar nobody at the counter can talk about stays in the humidor. None of these is fatal. All of them are avoidable, and the partner terms are written to avoid them.
If you sell to lounges and boutiques rather than import, the wholesale page is the one for you. If you import, write to us.
