Just in from STG/MacBaren/Sutliff

[Zamora]

I’m hoping C&D brings him in as a possible consultant. But even if they did I’m sure it would be in a limited capacity due to him living across the pond, as it were.

That would be the best case scenario, or maybe one of the German companies.

Mac Baren/Sutliff was so good to Per Jensen that he left there at least six months ago. Not sure if he jumped, or if he was pushed.

I didn't hear about that. If he knew the buyout was coming he might've decided to leave while he still could on his own accord.

That wasn't what I meant with this post; I'm not riding the boycott train like some others are. Most of my favorite tobaccos and daily smokes are from Peter Stokkebye, Lane, and codgers like Half & Half that are manufactured by STG. I'm not going to stop buying them. I'm just saying that I'm going to try to acquire those blends from sites/retailers I think should be supported.

I'm in the same boat. Sure they've made some very shitty decisions but closing factories is small potatoes compare to some other companies I still buy from. I love Peter Stokkebye so I'm going to continue my long term cellaring plan for LNF, the other two I was building up were Plum Pudding and Sutliff Crumble Kake VaPer and I probably won't be able to get anymore of the former any time soon and let alone the latter. There's a few STG owned blends I still want to try but they certainly moved way back on my to try list.

The irony of this is that driving business to C&D and G&H is great! Keep them profitable and going! But don’t mistake your support for buying loyalty. If your support helps grow the company and their footprint to the point STG gives them a blank check and they accept, them’s the breaks.

Those two I think are far less likely to do a mass discontinuation because 100% of their business is pipe tobacco and most of it premium. As it's been mentioned at length here it was easy for STG to do what they did because pipe tobacco is a very small ammount of their catalog and most of that is OTCs.

It's just tobacco. Lots of ire directed at STG but I doubt they held a gun to the heads of the owners of Mac Baren/Sutliff. Business works both ways.

Absolutely not, the owner(s) of Mac Baren clearly wanted out of the industry. Probably didn't care what the buyer did and wouldn't have been able to predict such drastic measures if they did care.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Absolutely not, the owner(s) of Mac Baren clearly wanted out of the industry. Probably didn't care what the buyer did and wouldn't have been able to predict such drastic measures if they did care.

Exactly which is why I find all of the anger pointed at STG perplexing. Both parties are to blame for the transaction.

 

[Zamora]

The revelation earlier in this thread that STG provides all of the leaf to Kopp is what has me nervous about this. I'm not sure what their financial situation is, but with regulations constantly getting tighter, and the fact that its doubtful that this will ever be a meaningfully growing industry it could put a strain on them. G&H has talked about how expensive and time consuming it has been to implement track and trace(or whatever its called) in the UK. Imagine doing that for 5 different countries, or adding very specific labeling that meets the requirements of 10 regulatory bodies.

If they have to sell there is really only one game in town, and its STG. Based on what they have done before why would they continue to make dozens or Rattrays blends, or three McConnels belnds that are all the same ingriedents in diffrenet perportions. It would likely end up with 1-3 blends from each of their brands made the cut if, if not less. I picked up two extra pounds of HH Burley Flake, and plan to get a pound of so of Old Dominion. Fortunatley for me those are the two affected belnds I enjoy the most. Now if it were Kopp in this situation I would need Smoking Pipes to deliver my Scottish Flake via forklift.

All the different regional regulations have made things a shitshow for sure. I know with non Cuban cigar brands many have had to exit markets that require plain packaging and don't exempt cigars, because each country has it's own warnings and graphic pictures. Very important that in Ireland you say Smoking Causes Cancer in both English and Irish in case the five surviving monolingual Irish speakers didn't get the memo.

I guess the good news is, I'm sitting on a metric shit ton of discontinued blends.

Wish I could say the same but I feel pretty damn good about having three tins of Sutliff Crumble Kake in my cellar. I was just buying them to see how they age over the years since I like it a lot fresh. Before the buyout I didn't think it was at particular risk at being discontinued but now I might use them to trade for some other discontinued blend.

If nothing else this sure has been an interesting look at what sells well among the offline pipe smoker crowd, some of which was quite a surprise.

Take for instance Three Nuns. Personally I love the current version of Three Nuns, but if you look at threads on the various pipe forums about it I'd estimate roughly 90% of the posts are going to be people saying not to bother with it because it doesn't have Perique in it anymore. Based on the online community response you'd think almost no one bought it, but clearly that isn't the case since it's one of the very few Mac Baren produced blends that will be sticking around.

I'm darn grateful that it is too, so if @leonardw happened to have a hand in keeping Three Nuns alive then thank you. That's the one big thing I'm thankful for today.

Yeah I knew there were guys that just buy whatever pouch is at Walgreens but I didn't realize so many regular customers at B&Ms eschew tins and just buy a pound of 1Q every time. I certainly had no idea those two camps were that dominant. I love the current Three Nuns too and I don't care that it doesn't have perique, sure it's weird to have it be the same blend only nominally but if it was still a VaPer people would complain it was ruined when Mac Baren took over it.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I didn't realize so many regular customers at B&Ms eschew tins and just buy a pound of 1Q every time.

2012 was the last time I was in a B&M. Tins were $28 and bulk house blends were $52/pound.


I always opted for the top house aromatic Vanilla Pie. I only saw others buy cigars and bulk aromatics. Boutique only smokers are only a small percent of the small percent of those that smoke pipes.

 

[woodsroad]

Exactly which is why I find all of the anger pointed at STG perplexing. Both parties are to blame for the transaction.

Correct.
And if this shrinkage didn’t happen now, it would have happened later, maybe under different circumstances, but the contractions are coming closer together now.

 

[sablebrush52]

Japan is going to take it in the shorts. A lot of their blends are made by MacBaren. Goodbye Momoyama.

 

[LeafErikson]

Japan is going to take it in the shorts.

Better than taking it up the ass!

 

[Servant King]

As soon as I get a C&D tin in the mail I pop it open and transfer the contents to a Ball jar.

Also a good strategy to avoid the dreaded can bulge. When they start to look more like a football than a cylindrical can, I start to worry. Like it's going to pop in the middle of the night and scare the hell out of me...

Better than taking it up the ass!

Yes, but the resulting societal humiliation factor is still roughly the same. At least that's the word on the street...

 

[Zamora]

2012 was the last time I was in a B&M. Tins were $28 and bulk house blends were $52/pound.
View attachment 360689

I always opted for the top house aromatic Vanilla Pie. I only saw others buy cigars and bulk aromatics. Boutique only smokers are only a small percent of the small percent of those that smoke pipes.

I don't even think there's very many people here who only smoke boutique stuff. My local is cigar focused and while they do cater to pipe smokers decently I know 1Q and RLP6 are their biggest sellers by a landslide, they used to carry Plum Pudding, Crumble Kake, and Molto Dolce and that was it for tins, they told me those were all very slow sellers but sold out the day the acquisition news hit. I figured it was different in shops that were more pipe focused.

 

[Zamora]

Japan is going to take it in the shorts. A lot of their blends are made by MacBaren. Goodbye Momoyama.

I had no idea they had any blends, I know there was Tsuge for a while but much like Peterson and Savinelli Tsuge didn't actually make it.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I know there was Tsuge for a while

It was made by STG for Drew Estate.

 

[Zamora]

It was made by STG for Drew Estate.

So made by STG for Drew Estate who were licensed to use Tsuge's name. I was very surprised to learn they supply leaf for K&K.

 

[Nevaditude]

I've been out of the loop for months. Just heard about this. Figured I'd go grab a pound of match walnut. Looks like you scarfbags already bought everything.
Oh well.
I actually bought a bunch of 1 ounce samples of a bunch of Sutliff this summer I haven't even got into yet. Now if I like something that's all I'll ever have. hahaha.

you may wish to try this- WV SmokeShop / WV Merchandise LLC - https://wvsmokeshop.com/walnutpipetobaccotin.aspx

 

[sablebrush52]

I had no idea they had any blends, I know there was Tsuge for a while but much like Peterson and Savinelli Tsuge didn't actually make it.

What they had were MacBaren blends under the MacBaren marque, plus other blends made for them by MacBaren.
Still, where there's a market, someone will try to fulfill it.

 

[sablebrush52]

The revelation earlier in this thread that STG provides all of the leaf to Kopp is what has me nervous about this. I'm not sure what their financial situation is, but with regulations constantly getting tighter, and the fact that its doubtful that this will ever be a meaningfully growing industry it could put a strain on them.

As long as there's money to be made there will be trade. If Kopp decides to source elsewhere, there are other sources. I wouldn't worry about it. STG may be a big fish, but it's not the only fish.

Every country that grows tobacco has brokers to sell it.

 

[Zamora]

What they had were MacBaren blends under the MacBaren marque, plus other blends made for them by MacBaren.
Still, where there's a market, someone will try to fulfill it.

Yeah and with how enthusiastic Japanese hobbyists are in general I'm sure some are on it already

 

[Zamora]

As long as there's money to be made there will be trade. If Kopp decides to source elsewhere, there are other sources. I wouldn't worry about it. STG may be a big fish, but it's not the only fish.

Every country that grows tobacco has brokers to sell it.

Yeah there's so much we now know for a fact is going away know, no sense in speculating hypothetical discontinuations

 

[damacene]

Wow STG sucks. I'm just switching to GL Pease.

 

[Zamora]

Wow STG sucks. I'm just switching to GL Pease.

That's a solid plan, he has tons of revered blends and pretty much makes every type there is with multiple options for each

 

[MisterBadger]

There are no "good guys" or feelings in business. I hate this as much as almost everyone else, but this is business.

Business, yes, but is it good business? With absolutely no ethical commitment to employees or customers? It looks like robber-baron late-stage capitalism to me.