I just finished listening to the whole thing and it was really great to get to hear Per G Jensen's experience and thoughts on the whole matter, and what the pipe tobacco industry may look like going forward. As someone who lives in the US it's very obvious that Gawith has stepped up production significantly over the past year, just based on the dramatic increase in availability of their blends here in the States, and I'd be absolutely thrilled if Germain's could do the same! Their blends are pretty much unobtainable here unless you know the owner of a brick and mortar store who can set some aside for you when a shipment comes in.
My biggest concern going forward is whether Cornell & Diehl will be able to handle the volume of sales requests from brick and mortar stores and independent blenders in the US who previously depended on Sutliff to fulfill their bulk tobacco and blending leaf needs, and do it without cutting corners on the quality of their product. I'm sure C&D's phones have been ringing off the hook lately with an astronomical amount of sales requests, and I'm sure they'd love to fill them if they can since no one likes leaving money on the table when it's there for the taking, but doing so without a reduction in quality could be a very challenging task for a company their size.
In any case, I will be very excited to see what Per G Jensen's new collaboration will bring to the market! In spite of all that's going away, there are new and exciting things on the horizon.
I should also add that I'm VERY relieved to hear that Cornell & Diehl would never sell to STG just on account of how passionate the owner Sykes is about tobacco, and that STG would have no interest in acquiring Gawith Hoggarth since almost all Gawith produces is flakes, plugs, twists, and snuff and those are all too labor intensive for STG to want to deal with.
