“Business has never been better,” reports Anto Mahroukian, president of JM Tobacco Company, producer of premium cigars and recently, JM’s Hookah tobaccos. According to Mahroukian, “With the economic downturn, everyday cigar smokers are buying three or four value-priced cigars like our JM’s Dominican line, instead of one super-premium cigar. After they try a few of ours, they tell us and our retailers, ‘Why haven’t I been smoking these all along?’ Our cigars are made of top-quality tobaccos, but their Cuban sandwich bunching … combining long- and short-filler leaves, reduces their price and still delivers a surprisingly opulent smoke.”
The latest product from JM Tobacco is their new JM’s Dominican Honeys line, offered in a 5.5″ x 42 Corona, with a Sumatran wrapper. (Regular JM’s Dominican cigars come in eight sizes and in Sumatran, Connecticut and Maduro wrappers.) Three selections are available, all with popular honey-dipped heads … the Honey, Honey Vanilla, and Honey Rum. Like the regular JM’s Dominican line, the cigars’ heads are pre-cut as a convenience to the smoker. JM’s Dominican Honeys are presented 24 to the box, opposed to the standard 50/box packaging for the JM’s Dominican line. (The latter’s Gordo and Gordo Grande have 24 cigars to the box, due to their 62-ring gauge.) Pricing for JM’s Dominican Honeys follows the company’s philosophy of offering top-quality hand-rolled cigars at value pricing … MSRP is $60 per box of 24, or $2.50 per cigar. Mahroukian says retailers are reporting these new cigars, introduced earlier this year, are already becoming popular with their customers.
Instead of cutting back during the present hard times, JM Tobacco has expanded their factory in Licey, Santiago, Dominican Republic, by 10%, to 15,000 square feet. Mahroukian explains, “The new area will be mainly used for tobacco storage. We can now also ferment leaves there, which gives us extra latitude in our manufacturing process.”
JM Tobacco is showing the new JM’s Dominican Honeys, as well as their other cigar lines and hookah tobacco, at booth #1855 at IPCPR 2009. All products are currently available from the company.
