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Jim Shand grinned last week as he told Geoffrey Ranck about the latest
allotment of Fuente Opus X cigars to arrive at Demuth's Tobacco Shop. One of the
first customers to hear of the shipment immediately started calling other
customers to alert them. The shop rations the prized Dominican brand, selling no
more than three of the cigars to any given customer a day.
Even at that rate, Shand said, the five boxes would be gone by the end of the
week. "They'll be happy campers," Ranck said.
Shand, who once ran Watt & Shand department store just down King Street from
Demuth's, joined Ranck in the shop's ownership and took over its management
April 1 as the new majority owner. "It's a perfect sort of second life for me,"
Shand said. "It marries so many of my interests - retailing, cigars, the
financial aspects of business. … And I love downtown. I think what is happening
downtown right now is amazing." The alliance of Shand and Ranck in Demuth's is
heavily permeated with the aroma of history as well as tobacco. Demuth's, which
was founded in 1770, is the country's oldest continuously operated tobacco shop
as well as the oldest business in Lancaster city and second-oldest in the county
(behind Bachman Funeral Home in Strasburg), Shand said.
Although still in its original building at 114 E. King St., Demuth's Tobacco
Shop was remodeled in 1917 with famed architect C. Emlen Urban designing the
facade and interior cabinetry. Urban also designed the facade for the Watt &
Shand building, preserved as part of the Lancaster County Convention Center.
Ranck, president of Domestic Tobacco Co., 830 N. Prince St., manufactures a
number of the house brands sold by Demuth's and bought the shop itself in 2003
from the Demuth Museum, which continues as the landlord and owner of the shop's
fixtures.
The museum promotes the art of painter Charles Demuth (1883-1935), a descendent
of tobacco shop founder Christopher Demuth. The artist lived most of his life in
the complex of buildings that includes the shop, and his father, Ferdinand, was
one of the shop's proprietors.
Domestic Tobacco
Domestic Tobacco traces its own roots to 1755, when A.K. Mann started growing
tobacco near Millersville. The Mann family later set up a plant to cure and cut
its tobacco, Ranck said. Ranck's grandfather, Milton H. Ranck, was also a
tobacco dealer. His great-aunt married into the Mann family, and a great-uncle
worked in the Manns' business before Ranck did. The Manns had three tobacco
companies - A.K. Mann, Mann Tobacco Co. and Domestic Tobacco Co. - which Ranck
eventually merged and ran for the family before buying the business.
Ranck traces his association with Demuth's back about 30 years when his company
took over Demuth's smokeless brands and started manufacturing its chewing
tobacco. "All the burnable products stayed with Demuth," Ranck said. When the
opportunity came along in 2003 to put the entire business back together by
buying the shop and the rest of the trademarks, Ranck took it. Domestic still
manufactures Demuth's brand chewing tobacco and some of the Demuth's brand
cigars, and contracts for the manufacture of its other brands and pipe tobacco
blends. "We have some of the Demuth cigars handmade in Honduras, some here,"
Ranck said. Pennsylvania tobacco is part of the blend in all the chewing tobacco
and in Demuth's 1770 Series Cigars, he said.
Domestic Tobacco manufactures other brands, too, and is federally licensed and
bonded to manufacture, import and re-export tobacco products. Ranck also bought
the brand name years ago for Demuth's snuff, which Demuth's itself used to
manufacture in a building behind the shop. The snuff is no longer made, but
Ranck hints that might not always be the case. "We're working on developing the
snuff," he said.
The Shands
"Geoff's family and my family have been friends forever," Shand said, explaining
his association with Ranck. Shand's great-grandfather, James Shand, was one of
the founding partners in Watt & Shand back in 1878, along with fellow Scottish
immigrants Peter Watt and Gilbert Thompson. Thompson died a short time later,
and a few years after that the name of the partners' "New York store" was
shortened to Watt & Shand. Shand's grandfather was treasurer of the company and
his father was president before him. All share the name James. Shand didn't go
to work in the family business right away. Instead, after graduating from
Princeton University, he worked for Bay Banks in Massachusetts for 11 years, he
said, becoming the company's youngest executive vice president at age 30.
"My dad had run Watt & Shand ... for 30 years, only owning 5 percent of the
business," Shand said. "He put together a small group of investors — me, my
brother [Douglas, chief executive officer of Amerigreen Biofuels] and father -
and bought out the other 80 owners in 1985," Shand said. "I was president from
1989 to 1992." The business had $35 million in sales and employed 800 people
when its two stores (one at Park City) were sold in 1992 to Bon-Ton, Shand said.
Around downtown
Since the sale, Shand has kept busy overseeing the two surface parking lots he
and his brother own downtown off Prince and King streets, and serving as a
wealth management adviser for a number of local individuals and families. It was
his love of downtown and the opportunity to become a part of another of its
historic businesses that attracted him to Demuth's, Shand said. "Restaurants are
opening right and left. The convention center is going to be opening," he said.
"I think downtown Lancaster is just happening. It's on fire."
Shand said when he and Ranck started talking about him taking over Demuth's, it
seemed it would be a good fit for him. "It worked out for me with my background
in merchandising," he said. "And I love cigars." Now, he's also learning about
pipe tobacco and the people who roll their own cigarettes. "It's so cool to be
able to keep going the oldest tobacco shop in America," Shand said.
Camacho Cigars announces that this year’s Camacho Liberty cigar will begin to
ship in June 2008.
As with each issue, this blend is also different and very intricate.
This year’s Camacho Liberty will be a medium-bodied, box pressed, “Barber Pole”
cigar.
Camacho Cigar will only be offering 2000 Limited Edition numbered chests
totaling 40,000 numbered coffins and cigars.
This series will retail for $16.50 per cigar or $330.00 per chest.
Fort Myers, FL: Two men have been indicted for bringing Cuban cigars and rum
into the U.S., according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Douglas Hiner, 68, and Martin Sengseis, 43, were both charged in separate
smuggling cases.
Hiner's 53-foot sloop "Vitamin Sea" was boarded by the U.S. Coast Guard and
Customs and Border Patrol as he returned from Havana on May 13th.
Agents say they found 361 Cuban cigars, as well as cigarettes. A search of the
vessel turned up 26 specialized compartments built for smuggling, prosecutors
say.
That find lead agents to a storage facility where they say they found 27,000
assorted Cuban cigars and 42 bottles of Cuban rum.
Sengseis ran his 51-foot sailboat aground on February 27th near Fort Myers Beach
as he returned from Havana.
The Coast Guard crew that responded to the scene noticed several items that were
clearly from Cuba out in plain view.
A thorough search of the Austrian-flagged "Golden Eagle" yielded 364 boxes of
Cuban cigars, 45 bottles of Cuban rum, 30 pounds of Cuban coffee and 100 cartons
of Cuban cigarettes in specialized smuggling compartments, authorities say.
Each man faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for bringing the contraband Cuban
products into the U.S.
Thompson Cigar Gives #1 Requested Item to Our Troops Overseas
TAMPA, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Thompson Cigar announces the donation of over
300,000 cigars to American Troops. Five years into the Iraq war American troops
are still deployed across the globe. Far from home is a tough place to be, but
there are some people and companies stateside that try to make deployment a
little easier.
300,000 Cigars & Counting
Take Thompson Cigar for example. Since 2002 Thompson Cigar has donated over
300,000 cigars to troops in combat areas of Afghanistan and Iraq, plus Korea,
the Horn of Africa and three Navy aircraft carrier battle groups through a local
Tampa, Florida effort called Support Our Troops (www.supportourtroops.com).
"The #1 requested item by the troops is cigars, with coffee being a close #2.
Every week I send out 68lb. boxes to 250 different units in the U.S. military
and every single week, every one of those boxes includes a supply of Thompson
Cigars. Besides being relaxing, cigar smoke keeps the bugs away, and in Iraq
that's a definite plus!" said Bob Williams founder of Support Our Troops.
Cigars and more
Of course, Thompson Cigar hasn't just sent cigars. Over the past several years
they've donated items like coffee pots, linens and pillows through their
affiliated companies. But their care and concern hasn't stopped there. Recently
Bob Franzblau, the owner of Thompson Cigar, requested his purchasing department
look into buying Swiss Army Knives for the troops because they are in such
demand and hard to come by.
"When it comes to troop donations, Mr. Franzblau's generosity is awesome. I've
been doing this for 20 years and I've never met anyone as generous and patriotic
as he is," commented Bob Williams. "I could never do what I do without the folks
at Thompson Cigar."
Two for the Troops
Last year Thompson introduced its Two for the Troops promotion in which anyone
purchasing a special offer from Thompson Cigar could automatically donate two
cigars for our troops overseas. Public support of this program has been
tremendous. ThompsonCigar.com reported that not only were people donating their
two cigars with purchase, people were mailing in additional cigars to be
forwarded on to the troops.
"The folks at Thompson Cigar go the extra mile to let our troops know they are
behind them," said Bob Williams of Support Our Troops. "Sometimes a cigar and a
cup of coffee just mean the world to someone who is far from home."
Of course, Thompson Cigar is not encouraging anyone to take up smoking. But when
soldiers are requesting cigars, coffee pots, pillows and sheets, it really makes
a difference to them that someone stateside cares enough to fulfill their
wishes.
About Thompson Cigar
Thompson Cigar has the distinction of being the oldest mail order cigar company
in the United States. Founded in Key West Florida in 1915, Thompson Cigar has
devoted over 90 years to delivering cigar smokers everywhere the very best in
national cigar brands, boutique cigars, humidors, cigar cutters and a wide
variety of quality smoking accessories. To view Thompson Cigar's selection of
cigars and cigar accessories, go to
www.thompsoncigar.com.
Join us at the cigar-friendly Jazziz Bistro in the Paradise Shops
at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino for a night of fine cigars,
savory drinks, gourmet food, and hot live music.
