Brass, I noticed your comments about the relationship we have with Greg Pease and other brands that we offer, and I wanted to offer some clarity on his point. Greg Pease of GL Pease Pipe Tobacco, Louise Jones of Hermit Tobacco Co., Tom Eltang, pipe carver extraordinaire, and Sykes Wilford and others of Lauds Enterprises, have all contributed recipes, branding and label designs, tin artwork and verbiage, and other details for their respective tobacco brands, which C&D carry out on their behalf In other words, yes the recipes and trademarks of all the associated brands which C&D produces, are created by, directed by and owned by individuals and companies outside of C&D. But we physically produce the products and everything from the stripping of the raw leaf to the cutting, blending, pressing, slicing, packaging, labeling, and finally distributing for each of these brands, are carried out by myself and my team consisting of two Raw Processors, Glen and Colin, two Blenders, Aaron handling mostly loose blends, and myself, handing mostly plugs, flakes etc, and one Tinner, Ryan, who handles every finished product we produce, regardless of brand.
The components, materials, methods and equipment as well as the people utilizing them, are the same utilized by C&D to produce our own proprietary blends, as for any of the other brands we make.
The Two Friends line and the Scuderia Series are slightly different scenarios. Int the case of Two Friends, Greg Pease and Craig Tarler collaborated on a selection of blends which comprise that lineup. In the case of Scuderia, which was envisioned by Luca Di Piazza, he approached C&D with the idea. We decided to create 4 blends which would be made into a short run of 400 tins each, named for respected and established Italian pipe carvers. Those blends are our recipes and the licensing of those products rests with us.
All of this, at least in my mind, points to one of the most important aspects of "who" C&D is as a company. Historically, C&D has remained highly collaborative, interactive and vibrantly creative. My team and I have even coined a group term that not only suggests a bit of how we function together, but also applies to the whole of C&D's past: Collab-reative. A hybrid of creative and collaborative, this term can be roughly defined as: creativity which is group oriented and interactive, or is inspired through the process of working together with others. The open sharing of ideas and information as well as time and resources has played an imperative and visceral role in the way that C&D has developed and grown since 1992. We strive daily to uphold this tradition of community and vibrancy.
