Drew Estates Sells...

[czerbe]

Wow!!

http://halfwheel.com/swisher-international-acquires-drew-estate/72299

Well best of luck to them. Hope it doesn't hurt their products... they make some of the best sticks I have smoked. Best of luck JD and the boys at DE.

[dave]

sad

[jhedrick83]

:td Better go grab another box of Undercrowns/T52/#9 before the get turned into flavored paper..

[themoneycollector]

^ this

I feel happy for JD & co, they are some $$$ ballers now.

But can't say I think their products will go anywhere but down.

[Remo]

JD got PAID...good for him.

I'll wait and see about the smokes :sh

[jhedrick83]

I don't blame them for getting paid. It's just a bit sad to me. Anybody want a wood tipped Dirty Rat!?

[shilala]

Not yet has a good cigar gotten conglomerated and remained exceptional.
It's sad for the smokes, but I'm happy for JD. He's worked his ass off, and done some very special things. I'm happy to see it pay off for him!!! :tu

[czerbe]

CAO.. cough cough

[ApexAZ]

I think they were about to go belly up. Doesn't swisher have a traditional premium cigar? I thought they did, although I've never had one.

[Brooks W]

:td Better go grab another box of Undercrowns/T52/#9 before the get turned into flavored paper..

While I understand the thought process (and please understand I am not picking on you specifically) I find this line of thinking to be somewhat odd...Ligas and Acids and all the rest are all going to be rolled at the same factory, by same rollers, using the same tobacco for the foreseeable future...In other words, Nothing will change with the blends for the foreseeable future.

Have you SEEN how much tobacco DE has stockpiled?

Just because Swisher has purchased the company does not mean that any of the blends will change, at least in the short term.

[dave]

Seriously?

I don't believe that for a second....unless 'foreseeable future' and 'short term' are relatively shorter than I'd normally consider

[ApexAZ]

Seriously?

I don't believe that for a second....unless 'foreseeable future' and 'short term' are relatively shorter than I'd normally consider

"Multiple years" according to the article.

[dave]

If everything is the SAME, then what'd be the point? Will this deal give DE a larger profit margin? How? Highest end tobacco has often been scarce for DE. Will this deal make more somehow? If not, then what good would additional markets or sales be? jhedrick was obviously joking, but I have a very hard time imagining that this deal won't be blamed (by us) for diminished quality in a couple/few years.

[Brooks W]

Seriously?

I don't believe that for a second....unless 'foreseeable future' and 'short term' are relatively shorter than I'd normally consider

There have been examples of larger companies buying smaller ones, and it being a POSITIVE thing.

The first example that comes to my mind (albeit in a different industry) is InBev purchasing Goose Island. The consensus at the time was that it would destroy Goose Island and their beers, but I think any beer geek would be hard pressed to say that at this point.

In fact, GI has been able to produce beers (and the number of beers) they never could have dreamed of before they were purchased.

[ApexAZ]

It saves them from collapse. It secures JD's and his partners futures, while buying the employees time to sort their stuff out. It also benefits swisher in terms of adding new revenue streams to their portfolio, which hedges against the attack on flavored machine made cigars. It seems beneficial for both companies, but I agree that the benefits of the consumer are still unknown at this time. DE was in pretty serious trouble, from what I've heard from industry insiders. Is a different DE better than no DE? Only time will tell.

[Brooks W]

If everything is the SAME, then what'd be the point? Will this deal give DE a larger profit margin? How? Highest end tobacco has often been scarce for DE. Will this deal make more somehow? If not, then what good would additional markets or sales be? jhedrick was obviously joking, but I have a very hard time imagining that this deal won't be blamed (by us) for diminished quality in a couple/few years.

There is more than one way to make money in a tobacco company other than making more cigars for more money.

Streamlining processes, cutting costs other than tobacco/production costs etc.

[jledou]

Interesting ... and the Outlaw party on the 25th is a DE party ... I am guessing some plans might be changing.

[themoneycollector]

I think they were about to go belly up. Doesn't swisher have a traditional premium cigar? I thought they did, although I've never had one.

Do you have anything supporting that they were about to go belly up?

[jhedrick83]

While I understand the thought process (and please understand I am not picking on you specifically) I find this line of thinking to be somewhat odd...Ligas and Acids and all the rest are all going to be rolled at the same factory, by same rollers, using the same tobacco for the foreseeable future...In other words, Nothing will change with the blends for the foreseeable future.

Have you SEEN how much tobacco DE has stockpiled?

Just because Swisher has purchased the company does not mean that any of the blends will change, at least in the short term.

True, it does not necessarily mean that things will change tomorrow. I may be pleasantly surprised. However, properly pulling of a Merger/Acquisition where both parties benefit is extremely hard. Is a pre-merger Chrysler the same quality as a Daimler Chrysler or a Fiat Chrysler? Usually one gets cannibalized somewhat and there has to be a genuine culture fit between the two parties. I don't know JD or anyone at Swisher. So you are right, I have no idea what will happen. Maybe it's like Tata buying Jaguar and totally revitalizing it. :sh My point is that for me, for my taste in cigars, there are many options in the same price range (and lower) that I enjoy just as much. If I know I can go pick up a Anejo 46 and it'll be spot on, or I can go grab an T52 for a few bucks more that may or may not be what I remember. I'll grab the Fuente every time. is LP dead to me? No. Will I be as sure purchasing them as I was before? No.

Foreseeable future is an easy phrase for a company to throw around, it keeps everyone happy and everything copacetic. It's great management. Let everything settle down, learn the ins and outs of your shiny new toy and then do what publicly traded businesses do, maximize shareholder value!

BTW, Brooks, I do love Halfwheel.:tu

[Brooks W]

True, it does not necessarily mean that things will change tomorrow. I may be pleasantly surprised. However, properly pulling of a Merger/Acquisition where both parties benefit is extremely hard. Is a pre-merger Chrysler the same quality as a Daimler Chrysler or a Fiat Chrysler? Usually one gets cannibalized somewhat and there has to be a genuine culture fit between the two parties. I don't know JD or anyone at Swisher. So you are right, I have no idea what will happen. Maybe it's like Tata buying Jaguar and totally revitalizing it. :sh My point is that for me, for my taste in cigars, there are many options in the same price range (and lower) that I enjoy just as much. If I know I can go pick up a Anejo 46 and it'll be spot on, or I can go grab an T52 for a few bucks more that may or may not be what I remember. I'll grab the Fuente every time. is LP dead to me? No. Will I be as sure purchasing them as I was before? No.

Foreseeable future is an easy phrase for a company to throw around, it keeps everyone happy and everything copacetic. It's great management. Let everything settle down, learn the ins and outs of your shiny new toy and then do what publicly traded businesses do, maximize shareholder value!

BTW, Brooks, I do love Halfwheel.:tu

To be clear, "Foreseeable Future" is my term, not theirs.

Thanks for your insight!

[Big Maduro]

This is a company that sells swisher sweets, Chattanooga chew and king Edwards. I can't see them holding up the mantel of one of the finest cigar makers on the planet.

[ChicagoWhiteSox]

If anyone hears about the financial details, post them here. I'd be curious to know.

[bobarian]

The sky is falling. :bh

[equetefue]

I'm so let down

[stevef2005]

The sky is falling. :bh

:tf :noon

I guess it is a good thing I have expanded my horizon. Hopefully DE can keep doing what they are doing and that is making some amazing cigars, minus those Acids.

[AdamJoshua]

I guess it's a good thing I haven't expanded my horizon, I won't know what I might have possible been missing, best of luck to Mr. Drew, he seems like a genuine, down to earth guy. I find nothing wrong with being able to sell your company for all of your future profits at once, since he is staying on for a period of time I'm sure he will have some say in the continued quality of the lines.

[sweater914]

I haven't smoked a DE cigar and automotive analogies may or may not apply. If Swisher truly appreciates the DE brand they will let it continue. Porsche, and Lamborghini reside under the VW umbrella but each has identity. VW provided engineering expertise to Lambo to make sure ergonomics were sensible. That being said some of the Italian extravagance was lost during the transition. I'd rather have a healthy Lambo than none at all.

[Subvet642]

It paid off for JD but it won't be so good for Swisher. Those who used to smoke DE cigars will likely stop due to a decline in quality, and Swisher Sweet fans aren't likely to start. It's gonna get ugly when they charge LP prices for gas station sticks. I can't see Swisher tolerating the type of availability issues that DE did to ensure quality. I see them using any old leaf as long as they can crank them out.

[ApexAZ]

Do you have anything supporting that they were about to go belly up?

Just the people who work my B&M. They work with reps every day, go to ICPCR every year, etc. But the article even talks about their debt issues. I remember hearing about this earlier in the year. My guess is they knew the swisher deal was being discussed as a way to absolve their debt.

[czerbe]

Look I'm a DE fan, the #9 t-52 dirty Rat all are great smokes, but to be fair I didn't smoke them near as much as I would like to,since their prices were way out of my range. I agree with Darren I don't see those kind of prices translating well under the Swisher umbrella. Now if they just picked up DE to round out their company profile and wont really get into the cigar making end, that will be a different story... but... I don't see that happening.

[AdamJoshua]

Well depending on which story / post of the day you read on the line, Drew Estates had a pretty heavy loan to pay Swisher back, so part of the 'buy out' seems to have been in eating debt already owed. J.D. 'Drew' would appear to have been rather harsh and making threats against some bloggers that broke the story, denying everything and threatening them at the same time...as it turns out he was full of it and they were spot on with their blogs, much more then the typical "no comment" he was calling them out as liars, etc., *shrug*

Either way still doesn't affect me, I still have to wake up and go to work tomorrow.

[Sweet_Leaf_PDX]

Just thought I would share this because I think it is good perspective on the whole thing. This was posted by Steve Saka on his facebook page.

"I have been getting slammed today with phone calls, texts, emails regarding Swisher's acquisition of DE. I have decided for good or bad I am going to share my thoughts. Like every other jag off with a keyboard I have a myriad of opinions regarding the news, unlike most I probably have greater insight given my experience in our industry and that I served with DE as their President and the CEO for eight years. That being said. I will willfully admit I do not know all the facts so what you are about to read is just my opinion.

- Congrats to my good friends at DE. They have struggled and worked their collective asses off for nearly two decades. It truly is amazing what they have accomplished, a true American success story.

- DE always has suffered under the burden of their rapid growth and expansion. It takes a tremendous amount of cash to operate a handmade cigar factory given that you are forced to buy materials three to five years before you even have the opportunity to try to create a sellable product. So even when you are doing fantastic posting those increases in sales, you are faced with a tremendous cash crunch given the investment needed to maintain the growth curve. IMO it was only a matter of time where either they would had to slow way down or take on an equity partner. Knowing them, "slow" is not in their vocabulary, so some sort of deal with someone was inevitable.

- Adding to the mix the uncertainty of FDA it makes doing a deal with someone with more experience and capacity to deal with this uncertain future wise.

- Given the size of DE, there are very few companies in our industry with the financial wherewithal to be such a partner.

- Swisher is a very well run, privately held company full of good people. Not your typical corporate wonks, so knowing the landscape I think they are the ideal partner given the field of possible suitors.

- I do believe that JD, Marv, Mike and the whole crew love DE. And I think they did a deal that gives them the ability to operate as a stand alone division and intact for the foreseeable future. What more could you ask for? No one is getting laid off, no consolidation of the factory or the US team as part of the deal. My understanding is that -all- of the existing management and key positions are under an agreement to stay. Seldom is a deal made where your people are given a fair opportunity to continue performing and for this the partners in DE deserve praise.

- In any deal like this, all the parties involved are required by non-dislosure agreements to remain silent. Do I think JD could have handled his denial comments better? Yes, but that is in hindsight, plus part of what makes him JD is the fact that he is knock-around, regular guy, not some sophisticated business MBA type. And to be honest, much of the fallout I have been reading today is resulting from what other's said about the situation more so than what he actually said himself. I know this can be argued endlessly and probably will be for a few more days.

- So what happens to the products? I honestly don't know, I do know however that the purchase does not automatically mean a change in brands or decrease in the quality. It could mean just the opposite. I do believe that DE will do their best to maintain and improve the products.

- Look do I believe "nothing" will change? No… things always change. They would have changed regardless of who they did a deal with and even if they hadn't done a deal. Change would have been inevitable regardless, what I don't know is whether this change will be for the better or the worse, time will only tell.

- And finally, I have read in a few places online speculation that my departing may have had something to do with this "pending" deal. This is untrue as we were not engaged in any such discussions with Swisher during my tenure.

There I have said my two cents… this has to be the world's longest FB status update... And I did the whole thing in my Scooby Doo underwear!"

[equetefue]

Interesting read. Thanks for sharing

[czerbe]

At the End of the day JD and Marvin and the gents over at DE did what they thought was best for their company, as I assume we all would have if it was our company. We can't imagine to know or think we know what the true inner workings of DE were or their financial status, so I'm wishing them good luck and God Speed.

[badbriar]

I'm so let down

What Edwin said. Hard to imagine a company like DE having massive debt, given the price of many of their premium cigars. Some of their offerings, like the No. 9, T52 and others are nothing less than superb. I just can't see a large, profit driven corporation like Swisher staying hands off when products from the newly acquired DE suffer from terribly limited availability. Would be mighty tempting to slap on another wrapper and call the new version a Pig with a tail in order to get those $10 plus sticks rolling out for sale. Lack of availability translates directly to loss of sales in a big way. When people can't get the latest and greatest, they turn to something else and in many cases, stop trying to get that holy grail cigar.
Long story short, IMHO, is there is more than likely going to be a decrease in quality of the legendary cigars we all have come to be in awe of. Hard to imagine a super-duper premium expensive cigar from Swisher. If you don't believe it, look at the other giants that have bought quality boutique cigar companies. Not many people rush out to buy from the cigar corp versions of the big box stores. Seems that this will at least lightly tarnish the aura of DE. Kinda like buying a Porsche from K-Mart. Sad, sad news! :sh