CAO and Dunhill Pipe Tobacco Distribution in Question
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Kevin Godbee - Nov 2, 2010
- 1 min read
What will happen with the distribution of CAO and Dunhill Pipe Tobaccos?
UPDATE: NOVEMBER 17 – Tim Ozgener will be leaving CAO. The offices are closing and the operations are being taken over by General Cigar.
It’s funny how you start working on one thing, and then something unexpected sends you in an entirely different direction. I started working on a tobacco review of Dunhill De Luxe Navy Rolls, and in the midst of gathering information found out that CAO headquarters may be closing. As a result of the Swedish Match and Scandinavian Tobacco merger, General Cigar will now be the distributor of CAO Cigars. General Cigar is owned by Swedish Match, which is now owned by Scandinavian Tobacco, which bought CAO a few years ago.
The big question is; "What will happen with the distribution of CAO and Dunhill Pipe Tobaccos?"
We made calls to CAO, General Cigar and other sources, but as of yet have no answers. Retailers have not been informed of this either. Keep in mind that we do not have official statements from authorized company representatives, but we did talk to someone directly affected that will be looking for employment. We expect many others will be too.
Up until this point, I have been one of the faithful believers that Dunhill Pipe Tobaccos were coming back to the US, but now I am not so sure. This likely also explains why Toraño Cigars took back their distribution from CAO earlier this year. I will start smoking my samples much slower now. The Navy De Luxe is excellent, and now I am afraid I won’t be able to get more.
As of press time, we received one response from a source at the Orlik factory in Denmark that a shipment of Dunhill tobaccos bound for the US has left their factory. They could not tell us an arrival date.
Our original source tells us that all orders received from retailers at the IPCPR Show in August will be shipped from CAO in Tennessee. The source could not tell us where they will ship from after CAO’s facilities close, leaving the distribution in question.
Will General Cigar be distributing the pipe tobaccos? If not, then who? Will there be shortages or disruption in supplies? Will they no longer be available?
All of these questions remain unanswered.
You can read about the merger here.
Written by Kevin Godbee
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And this after I just put Eileen’s Dream on my desert island tobacco list. Figures. Thanks for keeping us posted. And nice pic!
Simon
Dunhill Navy available here http://www.mysmokingshop.co.uk/index2.php?mod=mancats&man=429&sec=2022
These guys are keeping the Pipe smoking community uneasy with the
changing story of North American distribution. People are loosing
interest, and I can’t help wondering if this situation is
contrived…
I’ll regret not being able to sample the Navy Deluxe, but the thousands of blends I have yet to try will keep me busy until this thing gets sorted out.
I guess I better stock up on CAO blends…. I was so looking forward to a constant supply of Dunnhill’s EMP
Thanks once again for you efforts…Bummer was looking forward to getting a hold of the elusive dunhil pipe tobaccos..
Troubling news indeed.
Keep us posted.
I was just getting used to CAO getting back into the pipe tobacco business, especially considering they started with pipes.
Guess I will have to stock up.
Apparently CAO has been up this stuff in the past. No holding your breath on this one!! Perhaps will have to go vintage for now just in case. Disappointing but you know, there are a lot of other great tobacs for us. See you in Vegas!!
Dr. Bob
Thanks for Dunhill info. Smoke sum but not a lot of Dunhill tobaccos. Hey, there are plenty of good blenders in the US.
Hey I was gone yesterday but to answer the question on the link I posted it’s been some time since I bought there so I was unaware they stopped shipping to the USA:-(
With uncertainty like this, it is the very reason why I loaded up on DH tobacco’s yesterday at smokingpipes.com