C'Mon Smokingpipes.com!!!! Get With It

[pauls456]

I might need to move to your part of the country..
I also think there's a move away from the time-honored blends to more 'boutique' blends. These are produced in smaller quantities, and more prone to shortage. Once a brand is known to be in short supply, people want it all the more.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Move on down here. There's always room for more. But, I warn you... the first thing everyone will ask is what your religion is... Alabama or Auburn, ha ha.

There are more places that you can smoke, and less of the anti attitude towards smokers.

 

[swilford]

Would be interesting to hear if US demand is up X% and the prime driver (of tight stocks) or it's stacked up against XX% demand growth overseas. Kind of an odd market in that you could never meet/see another pipe-smoker in the 'wild' (outside a pipe-specific gathering) but tobacco sales are booming. Would be interesting to hear if it's a relatively small number of domestic buyers that make relatively large purchases or if net-new business overseas is really that sky-high. Thanks!

It's almost all domestic demand growth. Export grew a little faster, but about 80% of C&D's sales are domestic, so most of the growth is from pipe smokers in the US.

And it's fairly broad-based. If you mean on the individual level, that's sort of the nature of the product: it would take a herculean smoking effort for an individual to consume 0.05% of C&D's annual output (and C&D is quite small as far as pipe tobacco factories go).

Broadly, what's happened is that while pipe smoking has declined, the hobby/premium/sophisticate end of the market has grown. The pipe and pipe tobacco market used to be dominated by people who smoked mass market pipe tobacco in relatively inexpensive pipes (and didn't buy many pipes). The market has shrunk overall, but it also shifted towards people enthusiastic about pipes and pipe tobaccos, tend to be more engaged and tend, overall, to smoke less, but also tend to smoke a wider range of pipe tobaccos, particularly premium tobaccos.

So, that's also the answer to why factories like Gawith and C&D are running at capacity and failing to keep up while other factories have closed in the past few years. The market is shrinking, but a subset of the market is growing rapidly.

Sykes

 

[cosmicfolklore]

It's almost all domestic demand growth. Export grew a little faster, but about 80% of C&D's sales are domestic, so most of the growth is from pipe smokers in the US.

And it's fairly broad-based. If you mean on the individual level, that's sort of the nature of the product: it would take a herculean smoking effort for an individual to consume 0.05% of C&D's annual output (and C&D is quite small as far as pipe tobacco factories go).

Broadly, what's happened is that while pipe smoking has declined, the hobby/premium/sophisticate end of the market has grown. The pipe and pipe tobacco market used to be dominated by people who smoked mass market pipe tobacco in relatively inexpensive pipes (and didn't buy many pipes). The market has shrunk overall, but it also shifted towards people enthusiastic about pipes and pipe tobaccos, tend to be more engaged and tend, overall, to smoke less, but also tend to smoke a wider range of pipe tobaccos, particularly premium tobaccos.

So, that's also the answer to why factories like Gawith and C&D are running at capacity and failing to keep up while other factories have closed in the past few years. The market is shrinking, but a subset of the market is growing rapidly.

Sykes

Thanks for being a good sport, and thanks for the info. This is why I can't bring myself to order from others.

 

[haparnold]

This thread is a great example of why this is the best pipe forum on the web. Crotchety men complaining, a slight detour into manufacturing processes, and straight-from-the-horse's-mouth info from people in the know. It's like a PM bingo.

 

[sandollars]

And yet we worry about AUTOCLAVING our jars before cellaring them.... LOL!!!

 

[mikestanley]

I don't like tobacco shortages, but I do like to hear that demand is outstripping supply............... that's a good sign for us, tells me this hobby is thriving...........

Unless it is simply a matter of less being produced.
Mike S.

 

[mikestanley]

Move on down here. There's always room for more. But, I warn you... the first thing everyone will ask is what your religion is... Alabama or Auburn, ha ha.

There are more places that you can smoke, and less of the anti attitude towards smokers.

I did my bootcamp and AIT at Fort McClelland in 1985. I met guys who wouldn't speak to family members over that question.

Mike S.

 

[jerseysam]

It's almost all domestic demand growth. Export grew a little faster, but about 80% of C&D's sales are domestic, so most of the growth is from pipe smokers.....

Thanks for the reply, appreciated. I likely mixed asking your views from both a retailer (SP's) and C&D (manufacturer) perspective in my question....but your take on the growth of domestic consumption probably holds for all outside of things like Esoteric or Gawith.

Again, congrats on the big revenue year. From the outside-in, I don't envy your time in the forecast seat....shrinking market but small group buying more (fad or sustainable?). From a manufacturers seat...invest in production but also have the headwinds of regulations or decreasing tobacco production coming on. I'm sure it makes for an adventurous ride trying to chart a 5 or 10 year course!

 

[fireground_piper]

And yet we worry about AUTOCLAVING our jars before cellaring them.... LOL!!!

I say this to people anytime someone asks me about sanitizing jars. There's nothing in that jar that's not already on the tobacco if they've ever been to a manufacturing house! I went to D&R in 2019 and they were blending right there on a big table and pitch fork. I think the jars will be just fine.

 

[shaneireland]

Great thread. SP tobacco sales are up, but why? I suspect its more related to cellaring than an increase in the number of pipe smokers.
Why, you might ask, would cellaring increase? Internet access and social media.

Sykes’ answer about C&D’s growth applies here as well, but the short answer regarding Smokingpipes.com is that it’s both. We’ve seen a lot of new customers in the past few years (few months, even) and many existing and new customers are more engaged and interested in exploration tobacco-wise than folks typically used to be, decades ago.

Think about craft beer. Back in the day, grandpa only drank one brand and was loyal for most of his life, probably. My father drank Anchor Steam, and at Christmas he drank Anchor Steam Christmas Ale. Now, folks who are interested in beer probably try more new beers in a month than my father and grandfather did in their entire lives.
Does that mean more beer sales? Probably. For sure it makes the market more interesting. That’s how you end up with lots of choices.

And if you’ve been attending any of the domestic pipe shows over the past decade, I’m sure you’ve noticed a lot of young blood in more recent years. I was in my early twenties when I attended the Chicago show for the first time and I definitely didn’t see many other twenty-something, or even 30-something individuals. More and more people are discovering or rediscovering this hobby all the time and with all of the information that’s easily accessible thanks to the internet, they’re getting serious about pipes and pipe tobaccos quickly. It’s an excellent time to be a pipe smoker, even if everyone’s collective enthusiasm means that I can’t get all the Scottish Flake I’d like to have.

 

[JOHN72]

Sykes’ answer about C&D’s growth applies here as well, but the short answer regarding Smokingpipes.com is that it’s both. We’ve seen a lot of new customers in the past few years (few months, even) and many existing and new customers are more engaged and interested in exploration tobacco-wise than folks typically used to be, decades ago.

Think about craft beer. Back in the day, grandpa only drank one brand and was loyal for most of his life, probably. My father drank Anchor Steam, and at Christmas he drank Anchor Steam Christmas Ale. Now, folks who are interested in beer probably try more new beers in a month than my father and grandfather did in their entire lives.
Does that mean more beer sales? Probably. For sure it makes the market more interesting. That’s how you end up with lots of choices.

And if you’ve been attending any of the domestic pipe shows over the past decade, I’m sure you’ve noticed a lot of young blood in more recent years. I was in my early twenties when I attended the Chicago show for the first time and I definitely didn’t see many other twenty-something, or even 30-something individuals. More and more people are discovering or rediscovering this hobby all the time and with all of the information that’s easily accessible thanks to the internet, they’re getting serious about pipes and pipe tobaccos quickly. It’s an excellent time to be a pipe smoker, even if everyone’s collective enthusiasm means that I can’t get all the Scottish Flake I’d like to have.

From europe I'm not very optimistic.But I'm happy to read yor positive comment..........Thanks you Shane....?

 

[anotherbob]

Someone not too long ago posted pictures from the place that showed the equipment in some sort of museum like setting at the factory with signs on it explaining how it was used, then posted pics on newer equipment doing their cutting and pressing. I think that them using this ancient equipment is a forum mythology. Not 100% sure, but I've seen more evidence that is was just relics they show off than not.

I think it's because they use the old machines for the snuff. I could totally be wrong. But their snuff has never had any issues with availability at places that stock the stuff.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I think it's because they use the old machines for the snuff. I could totally be wrong. But their snuff has never had any issues with availability at places that stock the stuff.

I think that the "ancient equipment" thing is more "feel good" marketing, because they are a very old company. Because what would it really matter if they cut plugs with an ancient steam driven cutter, rather than a state of the art cutter? There would be no difference in the final product one way or another. And, it would be merely bad business if they let ancient equipment be a reason for slowing them down, if in fact this was the case.

Don't get me wrong. I am a GH&co heavy hitter. I'm just taking pictures of the new state of the art factory over all of the old ones as making more sense. But really, would you be more likely to buy a Snickers over a Mars Bar just because of the equipment that you think was used to make it? I don't think it would matter a hill of beans to me. When I buy a tobacco, I buy it for the quality it possesses, not a fantasy about how it was made.

 

[fireground_piper]

I don't think tobacco is exactly a state of the art industry. Though I suppose "state of the art" is relative.

Just look at cigar manufacturing. If something even touches a machine, it's generally considered an inferior product. Mostly it's hand harvested, hand fermented for years, hand stripped, hand rolled, etc.

There's an archaic way of tobacco, generally speaking, that refuses to want to update itself unless it has too.

 

[PipeIT]

Hmm what about when the nice family comes along and makes their Fallout Storage....



Then those hoarders come along and pack up their shelves. LOL

Hmm supply shortage. LOL ?

 

[FurCoat]

I was about to write the same thing. I do like SP and will keep supporting them but had to get my boveda packs elsewhere because I wanted some Carter Hall in the same order. Not a knock on the company but a bit puzzling that a popular otc like that was out of stock...for a while.

Not just CH. There was quite a panic on another thread regarding PA and have noticed SWR and Granger sliding into the out of stock column on quite a few sites. Should be an interesting year.

 

[irishearl]

Considering that there are only about 6 blends I really like to a significant degree right now and my top 2 are C&D blends, they tend to go in and out of stock.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I got my notification this morning and loaded up on Habana Daydream. You guys can get whatever’s left... unless I get another itch in the next little bit to buy more of it.

 

[sleepy57]

Love you Michael. Occasionally, I think you need to be the bustee instead of the buster.

I know where to get the tins he wants but he told me to SHHHHH on the site so I WILL KEEP IT TO MYSELF!