How dare you suggest otherwise!
Thoughts On STG
- Thread starter mr_future
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Fair point. Now can we get places of employment, especially private sector corporate to stop the whole “we’re a family” messaging? Wasn’t very family like in 2008 when my whole department got pink slips….
After that bullshit I never again took that crap seriously. I just smiled and went along with their game and fully subscribed to the mantra “boss makes a dollar, I make a dime, that’s why I shit on company time.”
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For those of you lamenting the downstream effects on small blenders of Mac Baren/Sutliff’s demise, please keep in mind that Sutliff and Mac Baren bought their tobacco from someone else. They never grew or cured tobacco. They bought it from a larger supplier. They may have cut the leaf, and they certainly cased and topped it, but a lot of what they used when straight from their wholeseller into the tin (or bag).
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Yeh, it has always been a hard pill for me to swallow that a B&M can mix two Sutliff products together and people will line up to buy that stuff. I think it's quaint to see these B&M's call themselves blenders, but...
I assure you that IT is NOT the place for job security. Ignoring murder and accusations (or perhaps mergers and acquisitions) where they immediately let go of a pile of people to "streamline" things (never mind that both companies were probably critically understaffed before the so-called merger). More and more companies lay folks off to reduce benefits - they don't want you to have three weeks of vacation and fully vested stock options.
100%
Even if they use the exact same recipe with the exact same leaf, and put it in the exact same tin with the exact same name and art, it will be produced in a different shop in a different part of the world by different hands.
I'm not that worried about Sutliff and MacB in and of itself, but I am concerned with all of the one-off's that STG produces. If they are closing factories and cutting staff, I assume they are also shuffling around the corporate decision-makers. I don't see a reason why STG would limit their "right sizing" to their newly-acquired portfolio.
Also, please correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought Sutliff almost single-handedly saved Latakia processing in the United States. I know they made heavy investments.
Yes, he sends me a package every year @mikethompson makes sure of it. Som Besths to all.
To be frank while I am upset about the tobacco (especially the limited run stuff) changing and or going away there is another thing that bothers me more. I hate the fact that people I know, and call friend are losing their job over this. The human part is what is killing me about this. I have enough I suppose to last the rest of my life (probably) I will buy things sporadically. The tobacco going away isn't the end all be all. It's the people. That is what I am upset about.
Indeed. He's a pretty good guy.
I completely understand that there's no such thing as job security in this world. I've seen my mom and dad get completely screwed by corporate America as they've gotten older My wife and i have planned our careers and finances around that. I'm a bit outside of it as I'm studying to become a priest. However, as a consumer I can chose to give my money to companies that hire Americans or not. I'd rather the guys in their 20s and 30s working at the C&D factory keep their jobs and maybe get a raise than support a corporation that can Americans and closes shop in the US. Heck, I'd prefer Jeremy Reeves and Greg Pease get some extra pennies for their blends than STG. I'm not delusional, just choosing who and what I decide to support with my money. If Laudasi closes C&D and moves to Uzbekistan, I'll hopefully have a big enough cellar that I've already been preparing for the last days of pipe tobacco. Just my two cents.
Like...what?
If you are defining "shuffling around" as "firing", then...yes.
Tell me more!
Sutliff was producing Latakia?
Arango, Bengal Slices, and Hearth and Home. And I'm worried they're going to screw up Lane again like after they closed the Tucker plant.
Yep.
Jeremy McKenna set up his own Latakia operation when the Syrian Latakia market collapsed. I found a couple articles that reference each other.
A True Halloween Horror Story: The End of Latakia
T’was the night before Halloween and all through the flat, not a creature was stirring, not even a bat. The treat bags were hung, by the doorway with care, in […]
pipesmagazine.com
One Decade of Sutliff Tobacco - A Mac Baren Company
Ten years ago, Mac Baren Tobacco bought Sutliff Tobacco Company from Imperial Tobacco. We look back on the history of these companies and what the last decade has sown.
www.tobaccopipes.com
From the tobaccopipes article:
Broadening Latakia production
From the outside, it may seem that there was an abundance of Cyprian Latakia accessible for an uncomplicated (albeit, upsetting for many) transition as Syrian Latakia dwindled. But it wasn't and hasn't been that simple. Even for Cyprian, availability was inconsistent. Sutliff was stocking up anytime Latakia was available, unsure how long it'd be before they could purchase more.In an effort to assure their continued supply, Mac Baren and Sutliff funded a Latakia processing operation.
"We got with some people and had barns built and smoked," McKenna Told Old Hollywood Briar For Pipes Magazine. "I paid for a lot of mine up front in huge deposits to fund their operation because they built it from the ground up...There was a lot of trial and error I mean, they promised us a whole bunch one year and it almost got delayed a whole year. But it’s working now, it’s putting out some good Latakia, it’s a nice stable base."
You could risk some of your moneys, start a business and employ people if that's your big concern. You have to remember though, it's your money and you are taking all the risk. Do not forget to demand a day of hard work for a day's pay. It's only fair. Some members here though do not subscribe to that philosophy judging to their cavalier approach to their employer.
Sutliff produced several of the Standard Tobacco of Pennsylvania blends, like Bengal Slices and War Horse. Once my former partners sold out to STG, I wrote off the future of those products. Actually, I wrote them off as soon as I resigned from Standard Tobacco, since I was the person who had to approve all of the STP products as well as any potential changes to product and packaging. So, this sale is just one more nail in the coffin. Then again, I could be completely wrong and we may all be pleasantly surprised at how STG handles the transition.
I recently put a supply of Standard's John Cottons Numbers 1 &2 on TinBids. They were snapped up pretty quick I was surprised.
What was the winning $?
Shouldwouldacoulda: I was able to buy as many tins as I wanted at less than 1/2 price.
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A hard day of work is only equivalent to the pay your employer is paying you. Many employers like to not pay a person his or her due so a smart man works the worth of his pay, no less, and definitely no more. I’ve busted my hump for decades with very few times I was duly rewarded for it. I’m pretty set now in my career and where I want to be, and am not being exploited for my labor as has been my experience at several other places during the course of my life. Don’t get confused between hard work and being used.
A 5-pack for $80 if I recall. 2 bidders competing. I thought it wouldn't sell. Pipestud once told me he wouldn't take it on consignment.
I need to feel I've earned what I'm paid. I "ride for the brand" as it were. If I take a man's money, he gets my best. That's how I was raised.
What a convoluted thread. Very entertaining though even the posts where the members have stayed on topic.
