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Lloyd's List
February 23, 2007 Friday
You can still buy them, but soon you won't be able to smoke them: One
specialist London tobacconist still has limited freedom
by Pieter Tesch
PICTURE the scene. As a helmsman relaxes after the pilot has taken
over on the approach to a British port and pauses to light up his
last Davidoff 100th anniversary limited edition robusto, the Maritime
and Coastguard Agency slap with him a £50 on-the-spot fine and the
ship's manager with £2,500.
Absurd? Not so, as David Osler pointed out on February 15 in this
paper.
On the same day it was also revealed that the British government has
allocated £30m ($59.2m) to train the health and safety staff of the
English local authorities to enforce the smoking ban in enclosed
public places by going 'undercover'.
Ridiculous? Absolutely, because tobacco products like cigars remain
consumer goods that still can be legitimately bought on the high
street, making them a nice little earner for the treasury.
But here is a thought. Refuse to pay the fines or become driven to
insanity by the British government's Kafkaesque approach to
interfering in our private lives and you can still smoke, because
prisons and psychiatric hospitals are still exempt from the ban.
What would Zino Davidoff have made of this all? The Jewish refugee
from pogroms in Tsarist Russia founded ndash; after sojourns on
tobacco plantations in Cuba and Brazil ndash; a global cigar empire
based in Geneva.
The nearest person we have in England to a similarly legendary figure
is Edward Sahakian, an Armenian refugee from the Iranian revolution
of 1978 which saw the forcible shutdown of his family's brewing
business.
>From London's only Davidoff franchise on the corner of St James'
Street and Jermyn Street, he has a bird's-eye view of proceedings and
does not think much of them.
But at least as a specialist tobacconist, Edward still has limited
freedom to offer his clients the possibility to sample and taste
cigars or pipe tobacco ndash; but not cigarettes or rolling tobacco
ndash; as long as they pay for their samples. And he is all too aware
that the new 'undercover' teams will be out there to intercept the
lawbreakers.
Any merchant likes to spoil his regulars with a sample of new
launches because taste is a very individual thing.
The 100th anniversary limited robusto that our mythical helmsman
fired up is an extension of the range launched to evoke the classical
diademas at 20.3 cm long with closed foot.
They are still available at Sahakian's Davidoff shop, unbanded in
attractive boxes featuring a picture of Zino in the doorway of his
Geneva shop. Eight robustos have a recommended retail price of £116
and 10 diademas £190.
But Edward is the first to admit that, excellent as they are, these
smokes may not suit all aficionados, who might want to hold out for
the new short robusto in the sceptre series of the Zino platinum
range being introduced later this year.
And those attached to existing Davidoff Dominican brands might need
some persuading to try out the new Zino Davidoff Classic Cigar range
of traditional Honduran blends, also being launched later in the
coming months.
Davidoff has never shrunk from launching new products, even a new
vanilla and cherry version of Djarum's kretek, the traditional
Indonesian clove-laced cigarette, even in the face of bans and
undercover law enforcement.
Indeed, it is a true statement of its faith in and commitment to the
future of the industry, consumer choice and, last but not least, the
people in the developing world who grow these excellent tobaccos,
manufacture these marvellous products and whose fate is completely
ignored by the new wave of enforcers.
February 23, 2007 Friday
You can still buy them, but soon you won't be able to smoke them: One
specialist London tobacconist still has limited freedom
by Pieter Tesch
PICTURE the scene. As a helmsman relaxes after the pilot has taken
over on the approach to a British port and pauses to light up his
last Davidoff 100th anniversary limited edition robusto, the Maritime
and Coastguard Agency slap with him a £50 on-the-spot fine and the
ship's manager with £2,500.
Absurd? Not so, as David Osler pointed out on February 15 in this
paper.
On the same day it was also revealed that the British government has
allocated £30m ($59.2m) to train the health and safety staff of the
English local authorities to enforce the smoking ban in enclosed
public places by going 'undercover'.
Ridiculous? Absolutely, because tobacco products like cigars remain
consumer goods that still can be legitimately bought on the high
street, making them a nice little earner for the treasury.
But here is a thought. Refuse to pay the fines or become driven to
insanity by the British government's Kafkaesque approach to
interfering in our private lives and you can still smoke, because
prisons and psychiatric hospitals are still exempt from the ban.
What would Zino Davidoff have made of this all? The Jewish refugee
from pogroms in Tsarist Russia founded ndash; after sojourns on
tobacco plantations in Cuba and Brazil ndash; a global cigar empire
based in Geneva.
The nearest person we have in England to a similarly legendary figure
is Edward Sahakian, an Armenian refugee from the Iranian revolution
of 1978 which saw the forcible shutdown of his family's brewing
business.
>From London's only Davidoff franchise on the corner of St James'
Street and Jermyn Street, he has a bird's-eye view of proceedings and
does not think much of them.
But at least as a specialist tobacconist, Edward still has limited
freedom to offer his clients the possibility to sample and taste
cigars or pipe tobacco ndash; but not cigarettes or rolling tobacco
ndash; as long as they pay for their samples. And he is all too aware
that the new 'undercover' teams will be out there to intercept the
lawbreakers.
Any merchant likes to spoil his regulars with a sample of new
launches because taste is a very individual thing.
The 100th anniversary limited robusto that our mythical helmsman
fired up is an extension of the range launched to evoke the classical
diademas at 20.3 cm long with closed foot.
They are still available at Sahakian's Davidoff shop, unbanded in
attractive boxes featuring a picture of Zino in the doorway of his
Geneva shop. Eight robustos have a recommended retail price of £116
and 10 diademas £190.
But Edward is the first to admit that, excellent as they are, these
smokes may not suit all aficionados, who might want to hold out for
the new short robusto in the sceptre series of the Zino platinum
range being introduced later this year.
And those attached to existing Davidoff Dominican brands might need
some persuading to try out the new Zino Davidoff Classic Cigar range
of traditional Honduran blends, also being launched later in the
coming months.
Davidoff has never shrunk from launching new products, even a new
vanilla and cherry version of Djarum's kretek, the traditional
Indonesian clove-laced cigarette, even in the face of bans and
undercover law enforcement.
Indeed, it is a true statement of its faith in and commitment to the
future of the industry, consumer choice and, last but not least, the
people in the developing world who grow these excellent tobaccos,
manufacture these marvellous products and whose fate is completely
ignored by the new wave of enforcers.