Germain and Sons Stopping Production?

[sablebrush52]

How would one contact Germains? I cant locate a website for them, but perhaps they dont have a website.

They had a website. It wasn't much of a website, and it looks to be gone. Here's their phone number:

+44 1534 724581

They're open Monday thru Thursday

Let us know how it goes.

EDIT: Looks like they're having a new site being constructed.

 

[anotherbob]

Hmmmm . . so a salesman told you to buy something he was selling, because soon it would no longer be available ?

Okayyyy . . . .

yeah my thoughts too. And I've heard enough rumors in my relatively short time here that have come from such sources and it makes me think the difference between a conman and certain salesman is that salesman make sure they aren't accountable for what they say. Oh sorry did I say this place was closing, well that's what Paul said...

 

[mingc]

I picked up a tin of Balkan Sobranie. The only code is on the back: 1300G091.

As I understand Germain's date code, G is late 2021, early 2022. I don't think you got old stock.

They had a website. It wasn't much of a website, and it looks to be gone. Here's their phone number:

+44 1534 724581

They're open Monday thru Thursday

Let us know how it goes.

EDIT: Looks like they're having a new site being constructed.

Same place-holder webpage that has been around for a while now: JF Germain & Son Ltd - https://www.jfgermain.co.je/

 

[anotherbob]

They had a website. It wasn't much of a website, and it looks to be gone. Here's their phone number:

+44 1534 724581

They're open Monday thru Thursday

Let us know how it goes.

EDIT: Looks like they're having a new site being constructed.

unless that site says screw you guys we're going home.... Doesn't sound like the actions of a small company that is planning on closing. Now a huge company sure, huge companies don't always communicate between branches unless they really need to. But a small company the orders come from a handful of people that usually see each other once a week if not daily.

 

[sablebrush52]

I hate this thread, it’s crushed all my pipe dreams. I was looking forward to opening a tin of Dunbar (which I was quite pleased to buy at retail) that is until I found out it ain’t crap compared to the old stuff. The last thing in the world I want to do is sing it’s virtues only to highlight to my palate’s lack of education.

To make matter worse, even if was any good I couldn’t smoke it anyway. Because in the event Germain’s does close its doors, the product I’ve got will be too valuable to smoke. I suppose the only thing left to do is to start hoarding the stuff compulsively and call it an “investment”.

Well, if you never smoked their 2020 or earlier releases you won't know the difference, so why worry?

@JimInks and I were talking about this last night and we both think there's a lot of changes happening throughout the blending industry as suppliers disappear, turning to growing other crops, and substitutions get made. Label stays the same, contents not so much.

 

[mortonbriar]

The REALLY innovative blending houses turned to soy based product a decade ago.

 

[sablebrush52]

unless that site says screw you guys we're going home.... Doesn't sound like the actions of a small company that is planning on closing. Now a huge company sure, huge companies don't always communicate between branches unless they really need to. But a small company the orders come from a handful of people that usually see each other once a week if not daily.

This whole thread is just forum fodder. We'll all chip in with our points of view, resolve nothing, be slightly entertained in the process, and forget about it.

 

[mingc]

The REALLY innovative blending houses turned to soy based product a decade ago.

So that's what you and @Ahi Ka are up to in Kiwiland.

 

[jguss]

This whole thread is just forum fodder. We'll all chip in with our points of view, resolve nothing, be slightly entertained in the process, and forget about it.

Forget about what?

 

[sablebrush52]

Forget about what?

I dunno, can't remember.

 

[jguss]

I heard a rumor that Germain hasn’t made tobacco for almost ten years. They buy their own blends on the secondary market and rebag them. That’s why the supply is so limited and the price has gone up. They lose money on every tin of course, but make it up on volume.

 

[OverMountain]

Well I HEARD that classic British Tobacco houses were the BEES KNEES and we should be so lucky that they occasionally grace our stores with the presence of their time honored products.

Much ado about nothing. A tempest in a teacup.

Germain and Son is dead…LONG LIVE GERMAIN AND SON.

 

[mortonbriar]

And anyway, why go to all the trouble of being relevant and then not spell germane correctly.

 

[sablebrush52]

The REALLY innovative blending houses turned to soy based product a decade ago.

I heard that the REALLY REALLY innovative blending houses were 3D printing tobacco blends.

 

[anotherbob]

This whole thread is just forum fodder. We'll all chip in with our points of view, resolve nothing, be slightly entertained in the process, and forget about it.

I've seen a few people go through these threads and become a little wiser about the ways of tobacco based rumors. And hey what is life without other people to interact with? Well aside from gloriously peaceful? Missing something. So that entertainment and interaction is worth something even if nothing gets resolved.
I will also say threads like this make me really appreciate my local cigar shop. They don't pretend to know things about pipes. I complimented their small choice of pipe tobacco as being pretty decent and they pretty much looked for lines that would cover most bases and not be too large that also reviewed favorably in general. But if you ask for recommendations they admit to not really knowing how to help you.

 

[alaskanpiper]

I hate this thread, it’s crushed all my pipe dreams. I was looking forward to opening a tin of Dunbar (which I was quite pleased to buy at retail) that is until I found out it ain’t crap compared to the old stuff. The last thing in the world I want to do is sing it’s virtues only to highlight to my palate’s lack of education.

To make matter worse, even if was any good I couldn’t smoke it anyway. Because in the event Germain’s does close its doors, the product I’ve got will be too valuable to smoke. I suppose the only thing left to do is to start hoarding the stuff compulsively and call it an “investment”.

Smoke it.

 

[mingc]

They lose money on every tin of course, but make it up on volume.

This is so good I'm going to steal it.

 

[beargreasediet]

Well, if you never smoked their 2020 or earlier releases you won't know the difference, so why worry?

@JimInks and I were talking about this last night and we both think there's a lot of changes happening throughout the blending industry as suppliers disappear, turning to growing other crops, and substitutions get made. Label stays the same, contents not so much.

Sound advice and thank you. Pardon if my comment seemed impertinent, flippancy is my spiritual gift. I was only poking fun at myself and the minor tinge of SOMO (sadness of missing out) I experienced as VaPers and especially straight Virginias are just opening up to me. This insatiable greed/lust that I feel for tobacco is so disturbing that I feel the need to mock myself a bit.

You’ve both forgotten more about the industry than I’ll ever learn; however, your inferences seem pretty spot-on, for a host of reasons, even from where I sit.

 

[FurCoat]

Thank you, so my suspicions are correct at least on the Sobranie tins that they were part of the most recent release and not found in some warehouse.

I would say so. In 2016 they started using a letter code for the year. 2016 being A would make your G 2022.

 

[LeafErikson]

I heard that the REALLY REALLY innovative blending houses were 3D printing tobacco blends.

The future is in tobacco holograms.