This sort of thing happens when the importer won’t order enough to meet demand, will only order a few shipments a year and no “ rolling” schedule of smaller shipments to fill in OOS items, lays off over at least half its sales force, fires the only person with roots in the pipe tobacco industry, announces big plans to become a major factor in the snus segment of the industry, closes down after 2 years the newly announced division that was to be devoted to marketing their own label premium infused cigars which ended up being sold at yard gar prices by one of the discounters this summer, fired the guy in charge of that division, etc. Chris Gawith knows what his own order.books show. He and his sister hear feedback from US customers about availability through social media. Every other thing I have mentioned has been covered in the trade press. Such as Tobacco Business Magazine, which the parent company of the importer also owns. And which has never given an inch of publicity to Gawith, even though the have found space to do great write ups of Missouri Meerschaum and Tommy Ascorti.
If I didn’t know any better, I would think this was a company run by people who made buckets full of money importing clove cigarettes and hasn’t had a clue since on how to intelligently spend it.
TL;DR- There is absolutely no fundamental reason for SG or GH to be unicorns.