Alec Bradley: A Story of Cigar Achievements

What do you say about a cigar startup that picked 1997 as the year to start up?

That was the year, recall, when (after five straight years of massive expansion) cigar sales finally started to level out. (They continued to do so in 1998--hampered, perhaps, by aftershocks from the 1997 Asian financial crisis, which may have reduced disposable incomes among the well-off who form this product's base, or perhaps by the, er, appearance made by cigars in that year's most endless soap-operatic political scandal, the Clinton-Lewinsky affair.) And add to that a business plan that involved heavily marketing cigars to golf courses--a sport that isn't played in most parts of the country for much of the year. Not an auspicious beginning.

But since then, Alec Bradley, begun by successful entrepreneur and longtime cigar smoker Alan Rubin, has shown a competitive wiliness that has enabled it to survive even as so many cigar-related start-ups, inspired by the "cigar boom" of the late 1990s but coming a moment too late, have disappeared. Not many of the cigar-related businesses begun after ninety-six can say the same. The inventive outside-the-box thinking that inspired Alan Rubin to begin a cigar-related business when many would have advised against it has also allowed that business to survive and flourish.

In 1999--after barely surviving for two years--the company teamed up with Hendrik Kelner (of Davidoff fame) to make the Occidental Reserve smoke, which company owner Alan Rubin (who'd named Alec Bradley after his two sons) then had the inspired idea to market via the following unorthodox tactic: he mailed sample packs to cigar store owners, telling them just to try the new cigar, and offering them the low price of one dollar per bundle. The ultra-low price worked. Orders flowed in, and Alec Bradley became a profitable company by 2000.

Unorthodox pricing continued to provide the company with a working strategy as it survived an increasingly tough 2000s-era market. In 2006 the company introduced its MAXX cigar, available in five sizes which each sell for an atypical five dollars. It worked again. By summer 2007 two more versions of the MAXX hit the market, and the cigar won accolades from specialty publications.

The company has stayed alive in part by catering to several types of smokers. The MAXX line appeals to trendier young smokers, while the Spirit of Cuba line is considered a "transition" cigar, one aimed at cigarette smokers (or less expensive cigar fans) who want to try a handmade, quality cigar that won't break the budget. (Think of it as being for cigars what Naxos's classical music CD line is to fine music.) The Tempus, its most recent addition, is more complex, aimed at the experienced smoker. It garnered a 94 from Cigar Insider.

They've kept an unorthodox approach too by partnering with other kinds of businesses (including golf-wear makers and car companies). That approach even extends to their website, which greets the casual visitor with various melodies that play automatically when different pages are opened--a Placido Domingo number; a techno-party tune; a moving jazz-inflected remake of "Over the Rainbow" with a Miles Davis trumpet sample in the background; etc.

The company maintains a necessary flexibility, too, by (rather than having its own tabaceria) maintaining deals with cigar makers in several countries. That way the best tastes from around the world are at its--and its customers'--disposal.

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