(tropical music)

with the fine gentlemen from Lovely Cigar.

Last year we met at the bar.

- We did.

- We had a chat.

And you launched...

And I think you launched that cigar.

- This one?

- Yeah.

- Well, we were trying to launch that one

last year at the show,

but we had some printing issues,

so we didn't actually have

that cigar at the show,

we just had our original blend.

- So, it's exciting for us

to get exposed to new lines, new players.

- Yep.

- And to welcome them warmly

into the cigar industry.

Boveda has been around since 1997.

You guys have been around since 2023.

- Kind of.

We've kind of been around

since like the late 1800s.

- Okay.

- Oh, I see

how you played that.

That's a good play.

- We've kinda been

around for a long time.

But we've only been selling

cigars since August of '22.

- So, has everything gone exactly

as planned in your first year?

- Of course.

Like, It is smooth as silk.

- Super smooth.

- Easy.

- No bumps in the road.

- All the stores are answering the phone.

- Everybody's just like,

"Please send me stuff."

(speaker laughing)

Yeah, no issues.

No, it's not like a

business, it's a storybook.

- I'm not a good liar.

I'm not.

- Has it been hard?

- It's really hard to lie for me.

- Has it been a hard run?

- No, I wouldn't say hard.

"Hard" is definitely not the word.

I mean, it's challenging.

Challenging, there are some challenges,

but I think when you're asked,

"How's the last two years been?"

- Yep.

- I think every business,

no matter what business,

no matter what industry,

the first two years is gonna be rocky.

- Yeah.

- That's just kind of a given.

But I would say

the word I would use to describe

it is more "surprising."

It's more unexpected.

When we thought about making a cigar line,

the idea of where we are

today, like, physically,

like, exactly where our business is today,

it was like a five year

plan, maybe 10, you know?

I remember when we were like,

"Well, we'll be at PCA year two," right?

And we were.

And then I remember the

conversations we had.

"Well, we'll have a bigger booth,

"yeah, like, year five,

year 10," you know?

- Your booth looks great.

- Thank you.

Thank you.

- Yeah.

- Well, we'll be a show sponsor,

you know, five to 10 years.

Five to 10 years.

And our first 10 years--

- I wasn't with the company,

but our first 10 years, the

blood, sweat, and tears.

- Yeah.

- That goes into launching a brand,

whether it's a cigar brand or

an ancillary accessory brand.

- Well--

- It's brutal.

I mean--

- It's brutal, but, like,

it's been so rewarding,

because we're exceeding

our own expectations

for where we could have been,

where we could possibly have been,

because there's even no guarantee

when you start a cigar business

that you get to where we're at today

in your entire lifespan.

And so we're growing fast.

We're getting recognized fast.

And it's been a remarkable,

"remarkable," that's the best word,

a remarkable two years.

- The draw on this is spectacular.

Oh, wow.

- That's really good to hear.

- How do you do that?

(speakers laughing)

- Has it been consistent across the line?

- We wanna have, you know,

number one, a really quality product.

If you don't have a quality product,

people aren't gonna come back to it.

So, if we don't have a quality

product, we got nothing.

So, first off, we want to have quality.

Second off, we want to

have good marketing,

good presence in the humidor.

We want, you know, customers

to be able to relate to the brand.

So, really after that,

it's part of our story and our marketing.

And then finally, it's more

about us working with the shops,

and the shops working with the consumers,

because that's how we

work through the shops.

So, you know, without a quality product,

we can't do the rest of it, you know?

We can't do it without the shop owners.

And we can't ultimately do it

without the people enjoying the cigars.

So...

- I think everyone that

makes cigars wants to

make a quality product.

I don't think there's anyone

in this room that's saying,

"Well, a subpar product's

gonna do just fine."

- Right.

- I think we all have

a passion to make

a quality product.

- I think some

people say that.

Do you think so?

- I think some people

are like, "Don't smoke it."

- I can't believe that.

- I don't believe that.

I don't believe that.

(speakers laughing)

I don't believe that.

We love the industry.

We love what we do.

- Yes.

- So, the quality is, like,

when we'd come up with

the idea for the blend,

when we decided what we

wanted for our cigar,

I think what leaned on our

favor is that us three,

I don't think that we're

unique palate people.

I think we're very normal people.

And so, we were making cigars

that we would love to smoke.

- Well, whoever blended this Maduro--

- And at the end of the day--

- He deserves a hug.

- That's us.

- Yeah.

- Dylan [Masse] and I did that

the last time we were down in Nicaragua.

- This is just lovely.

- Well, thank you.

- And if you haven't followed this podcast

and you missed the story from last year,

the Lovely Cigar brand dates back

into the 1800s out of Green Bay.

And these fine folks took it over

and revitalized the brand.

And you had a stick last year

that barely made it to the show.

(speakers laughing)

- You can say that.

- And now you have how many facings?

How many, if somebody--

- We have eight total vitolas,

if I total those.

So, we have our original [Elegante] X2

[Ain't They Lovely Cigar] blend

that comes in one size.

That's this first cigar we came out with

just to see if people liked it last year.

The 162 is what Keith's

[Archiquette] smoking right now.

We have three sizes in that,

a Churchill, a Robusto, and a Corona.

And now we have our

new Connecticut Maduro.

It's called the Bay City Cigar.

So, it's actually our new...

Yep, that's the Bay City Cigar by Lovely.

- Oh.

- So, we have Ecuadorian

Connecticut wrapper.

So, what I'm smoking, you

have the San Andrés Maduro.

Both of them have a Sumatran binder

and all Nicaraguan fillers.

So, the only difference

really is the wrapper.

- I've been smoking cigars

with everybody I've talked to.

- Yeah.

- Every sit down I've had,

it's a different cigar.

And some are better than others.

And this is...

(speaker laughing)

I just think it's awesome.

You're way ahead of the crowd as far as

the kind of quality that you're

bringing to the marketplace.

- Wow.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

- How's it been at

converting a great idea into

stores adopting the line?

How's that going?

- I mean, it's interesting, you know?

I mean, if we get a

chance to talk to people,

and tell them the story,

have them smoke the cigar,

a lot of times people

are interested enough

to want to try us out.

So then it becomes, you know,

how do we maintain those relationships?

Because we can't be

everywhere all the time.

So, then it goes down to our marketing,

trying to reach people

and be present, you know,

in social media and everywhere.

- Well, I think one of the big ones too,

we see a lot of success...

We're a small business, we're growing,

but we see a lot of success

in smaller shops that get

a few regulars on board.

You know, if we can meet, you know,

we go to these shops, we meet these guys,

"Hey, try this out,

"here's our story,"

a lot of those regulars love the history.

They love the story behind it.

They love the fact that we're also small

and we focus on the shops, you know,

just as much as we focus on the cigars.

And then, those regulars are the ones

that are telling people the stories.

You know, they sell themselves.

- Yeah, I had no idea that

Green Bay had such a reputation

as being a vortex of cigar

production back in the day.

- Yeah.

- So, I learned that

from you guys last year.

- Yeah.

- And one year later,

how's the report card look for

where your expectations were?

I know your philosophy,

don't have any expectations.

- No, that...

(speakers laughing)

- But how's it measured up?

How's it measured up with...

- Well, when we originally sat down,

we kind of, like, figured,

here are the markers that we want to hit,

the mile markers as we go.

And two years in,

we're probably at where we

expect it to be five years in.

- Yeah.

- Oh, so you're ahead of schedule.

- We're ahead of where we've planned on.

So, like I said, it has not been smooth.

It's been bumps and bruises,

and it's been very

rewarding and a ton of fun.

And we love meeting all these people.

And it's just challenges.

Like, you know, issues are just

challenges that we need to overcome.

So, when we overcome those challenges,

it's like we grow a little bit more,

the business grows a little bit farther,

and, you know, it's a lot of fun.

- Some of these challenges were...

Because we were expecting

to have these challenges down the road,

we didn't pay too much,

like, we didn't put a lot

of thought process into--

- They were delivered early.

- Right.

- And so when you're there, we're like...

We're on this journey

that we are very far,

further than we want it to be.

And we're now like, "Well,

what are we gonna do now?"

So, it's to our detriment

from how fast we are moving.

That's where the growing pains are.

You know, if you're blessed

with that kind of excitement and growth,

that actually is the

thing that I would say is

the thing that you ask, the growing pains.

That's that.

- So, there's a beautiful synchronicity

that happened last year.

Your guy, Wade...

Is it Wade?

- Wade, yes.

- Yeah, yeah.

So, Wade...

What's his last name?

- Forncrook.

- Forncrook.

- Forncrook.

I don't know where that's from.

- It's an easy name.

- I think it's Irish.

- Yeah, it's an easy name.

Something like that.

So, we were standing in the bar

and I didn't recognize Carlito Fuente,

because Carlito has gone through

a personal transformation.

He had lost some weight.

I was like, "Who's the guy in the hat?"

And Wade [Forncrook] says, "It's Carlito."

So, that's what turned

into the introduction

at the bar where I met you guys.

And we get exposed to

this lovely opportunity

to talk to guys that are

getting started in the industry.

Now Carlito's no stranger

to making way for people

coming in the industry.

So, we interviewed Litto yesterday,

Litto Gomez from La Flor Dominicana

And it's a classic story of graciousness

where Litto moved to

the Dominican Republic

to start a cigar brand

without any real understanding

or background in cigars.

A very closed Dominican

community as far as,

you know, family, and

tradition, and years,

and you grow up in the industry.

So, Litto shows up in earnest.

And between Jochy [Blanco]

and Carlito [Fuente],

those are the guys that

gave some space for him to--

- They made a path for him.

- For him to get going.

Who has been helpful to you?

Have you had connections at the show or--

- Well, that's one of my favorite things

about this industry.

So, I come from a business

background, very cutthroat.

You know, "Hey, who do I gotta step on?

"Who do I gotta undercut

"to get the business

coming into this industry?"

You know, Mike [Gehm] had

experience, he had a shop,

he had worked in, you know, cigars.

So, he had to kind of

throttle me back a little bit.

He's like, "This isn't like that.

"You know, we're all here

to help each other out."

And it took me a little bit to

get an understanding of that,

but that's really it.

- Yeah.

- This industry, it's like,

"Welcome to the club, you know,

"you're part of the family now.

"We're stronger with you," you know?

Like, everybody together.

Honestly, I don't know that

we've talked to anybody

that was like, "Get out of my face.

"I'm not here to help you."

- It's a ridiculously welcoming industry.

- Yeah.

- It's crazy.

- It is.

- Everybody's welcoming.

- It's astounding.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, I originally,

when I owned the cigar shop in Green Bay,

like, I'd met a lot of people then,

you know, coming to the show,

and Dave Lampert, you know, Dave Lampert?

- Yeah.

- Dave was our rep

at the shop, and I reached out to him,

and we had this crazy idea,

and he hooked us up with

Carlos Sanchez who runs Tacasa,

who makes our cigars for us, you know?

And Carlos was like, "Yeah, let's do it.

"I'll talk to you, whatever.

"We'll make it work."

- And it's such a cool story.

- Yeah.

- So, the guy knows

you from the store.

- Yeah, Dave Lampert, he was our rep.

- He hooks you up--

- 15, 16 years ago.

I called him up, and I was like,

"Dave, this is what I'm thinking."

He's like, "Call Carlos."

You know, I reached out to

some of the other bigger names,

and they were kinda like,

"Yeah, we don't know."

And this is when

all this stuff was going on with the FDA,

so everybody was scared

and everybody was like, "Do

you know what's happening?"

I'm like, "Yeah, I'm educated.

"I read all the news."

But people didn't...

You know, they didn't wanna do anything.

And Carlos was like, "Yeah, let's do it.

"We'll figure something out."

And, you know, we didn't

want to jump into this like,

you know, half a million dollars,

a million dollars in debt

trying to make it work,

so this is all bootstrapped

and we're trying to do

it ourselves really.

So, we need somebody

that would be flexible,

and really people in the

industry are very flexible.

- So, is it a full-time

gig, is it a part-time gig,

or are you guys ham-and-egging it?

How does it work for you?

- I've never heard of ham-

and-egging it before.

- What's ham-and-egging it?

Because that might be it

and we just don't understand it.

- When you're bootstrapping, it's like,

"Okay, I got my side gig,

"you know, I got my 26 hours at Costco,

"I'm doing a little Uber on the side."

(speakers laughing)

I mean, that kind of a thing.

Or is it--

- That's ham-and-egging it?

Then we're ham-and-egging it.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

(speakers laughing)

- So, the hobby becomes...

- Well, the idea is the transition, right?

So, we wanted to build this up

to the point where it's

supporting us and our families,

and it's a sustaining business

that we can, you know, eventually

pass on to our families,

you know, pass down.

- We all have day jobs.

- The more of these you

get in people's hands

to get a test drive,

you're gonna sell this cigar.

- Thank you.

- I appreciate that.

- I mean, just from the get go,

the cold draw, the start, the whole...

I mean, it's just delicious.

I mean--

- Thank you.

- And I'm no connoisseur.

I'm kind of a cigar freak,

because I pound through so many of them.

But I just think it's a delicious cigar

and you really should be

proud of what you put out.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

- Yeah.

- We are.

- And I'm not just saying that

to get in your good graces.

- Yeah.

Well, yeah, yeah, yeah.

We believe you.

(speakers laughing)

You asked us to be here.

(speakers laughing)

- Well, it's great for us to have

that initial conversation last year.

You get a trip around the

sun, and you come back,

and you get to update,

and you're on pace on your

five year plan in year two

or starting year three,

whatever it is.

- Right.

- That's exciting.

- Yeah, absolutely.

That's 100%, very exciting.

And, you know, we meet all the time,

and we have a chat group

where we're talking to

each other every day.

- Yeah.

- You know, it's--

- Not during business hours.

- Yeah, yeah.

(speakers laughing)

- Our employers are watching.

- Not during ham-and-egg hours.

(speakers laughing)

- Yeah, always off the clock.

(speakers laughing)

- Well, they won't see this.

- They will.

(speakers laughing)

Yeah, they will.

My boss has watched the video last time.

- Okay, so you're gonna put it on your--

- His boss loves cigars.

- My boss loves cigars.

He loves our cigars.

- Yeah.

(speakers laughing)

- Well, what can we do

to be more supportive?

How do we help you forward your vision?

- Well, I love coming

here and talking to you.

I'd love to do this every year with you.

- I love--

- So we could give you more--

- I just think it's cool.

It's like watching a

baby elephant grow up.

- Yeah.

(speaker laughing)

Yeah.

- You know?

- And then you come in here,

lumbering in here after five years,

and we will have the check again.

- You are giving us a video

docuseries on our growth.

And that's--

- It's a great deal.

Plus we get to do time lapse photography

to see who degrades fast.

- Yeah.

- Right.

I'm getting gray.

- Yeah, I didn't have

a mustache last year.

I have one this year.

- It's really quite fantastic.

- Thank you.

I tell him that all the time.

(speakers laughing)

I tell him, "You should never shave that."

- Yeah.

- "You should really

"grow it out too."

- Yeah.

- But, yeah, we would...

To help us out, just

exposure, more exposure.

- Yeah, more introductions,

more friends.

- More exposure.

This year is marginally

different than last year.

Last year, day one,

we were kind of in a corner,

kind of flagging people down

like, "Hey, hey, have you heard of Lovely?

"No?"

And if we could get someone

to talk to us, they did.

But this year, people are coming up to us,

and being like, "I've heard of you.

"I've had your cigar."

And it's so different how

people are now seeking us out.

And to where we're gonna

be next year, I'm excited.

I don't even wanna put a ceiling on it.

- Back to this.

This is the Maduro?

- That's the Maduro.

- This is announced at the show.

This is--

- This is announced.

- We have that Toro.

And then we have a Robusto Gordo as well.

Hand delivered yesterday.

- Thursday.

- Thursday.

- But they got here just in time.

Flew them in.

He had one suitcase full of cigars.

- By the man himself.

- By Carlos [Sanchez].

He brought them from Nicaragua to Florida

and then flew them in on Thursday night.

- Beautiful.

Any big surprises?

Anything that sort of

knocked you on your heels

that you're willing to talk

about in that first year?

- The first year?

- I think for me, the reception,

like, we weren't sure if anybody would

really even like our

cigar, like our story.

- We could have left with nothing.

- We felt like we had a solid product.

- Yeah, we felt good about our cigar.

We felt good about our story.

But you never know how

people are gonna react to it.

So, we're we're coming into this like,

we're excited, we're pumped,

but you know, are people

gonna respond to us?

- Are they gonna give us time of day?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- And people really have...

Like, when we tell them the story,

nobody really knows the

history behind that.

They know a lot of the

big family histories,

like the Fuentes and they

know all that history.

But there's a tremendous

amount of just American history

in general that people don't know about,

and people really like that.

They're as excited as we are.

- That's what got my attention.

I mean, we had that

conversation at the bar.

And I'm like, "This has

got some drama to it.

"Let's do it."

It's got history and you guys are

obviously great personalities,

lovely people to be around.

I mean, it's a Lovely Cigar.

- Well, one of the things

that really surprised me,

this is our second year,

you know, presenting at PCA,

we're a newer company,

the first year it was

kinda people, you know,

we had a booth tucked way in the back

and, you know, we had a nice little spot,

and people would come by,

and say, "Hey, I like the

name, that's interesting.

"Let's talk."

This year, something that

really blew me away is

we've had multiple people come,

"Hey, you're the first

booth I wanted to see.

"I've been seeing your stuff.

"I've been hearing about you guys.

"I wanted to come and talk to to Lovely."

It wasn't just like a

passing by on our way

just after we've talked to everybody else.

We've actually had a

handful of people that said,

"We heard about you, and we

want to come and see you."

The second year is pretty...

That blew me away.

It's very humbling.

That put me backwards.

- Oh, my goodness, really?

- Yeah.

- Well, I had a guy yesterday

that came up to the booth to get a bag,

because one of our standard

things that we do is

we provide bags so people

can keep their cigars

from disintegrating when

they're in Las Vegas.

So, the guy came up and he was

smoking one of your cigars.

And I said, "So, what do

you think of that stick?"

And he goes, "I've never had--"

I said, "Have you had it before?"

And he goes, "Never had it

before, never heard of it before.

"But I really like it."

- Wow.

- That's huge.

- Yeah, and cigar guys share cigars

and share cigar recommendations

with their buddies.

I mean, I can't tell you

how many things I would

never have tried on my own

wandering through a humidor,

that somebody's smoking it,

and they say, "How do you like that?

"And what do you like about it?"

And they talk and you get that connection,

that personal connection.

And all of a sudden

you're trying something

that you never would've tried before.

So, that's cool when you've

got that happening at the show,

a guy walking around like, you know,

how the race cars put the

brands on the race car,

this individual's walking

around carrying your cigar.

And I, of course, recognize it,

because, you know, I

naturally have an affinity for

you guys.

- Thank you.

- I'm pulling for you.

And I wanna keep doing

this with some regularity,

so that we can follow the

story of Lovely Cigars,

and you cats and what

you bring to the party.

- Yeah.

- Well, I want to thank you too,

you and Boveda, like, I mean,

you guys have done a lot

reaching out to us when we were very new

and helping boost this up.

But also the fact that I don't know how

we would make this show happen

without Boveda realistically.

We load our bin up,

we ship everything here

with the Boveda packs,

and, I mean, you set

a box out for an hour,

and they're falling apart, if

it's not the display boxes.

But our stuff, I don't

know what we would--

- We don't even think that

there's another option.

- Right.

- You know?

It's that you guys are

that ingrained in...

You guys are perfection in what you do.

And there's just no other...

You're the go-to.

- So, I didn't say anything

about doing a commercial for Boveda.

- No, you didn't,

but it's just what we do.

- I appreciate it.

- Well, you said--

- We use your stuff.

- How can you guys help us?

You are helping us.

- Yeah.

I don't know how the show

would happen without Boveda.

- Well, if you need more bags

for your storing your

stuff tonight or whatever,

help yourself.

- Yes, sir.

- Thank you, sir.

- We'll hook you up.

- At the end of it, at the end of the day,

like, we are three people

from Green Bay, Wisconsin.

We are three cigar lovers

from Green Bay, Wisconsin,

and we're making cigars

that we want to smoke.

And it turns out that we

are normal cigar smokers.

And when we make a cigar that we love,

like, it turns out we aren't

unusual, we aren't unique.

So many other people love it too.

- I sincerely think this is a gem.

- We're not, like...

I don't know, we're very normal.

And so, we're making a cigar

for very normal cigar smokers.

And it turns out that's a

lot of people, you know?

- You're so far beyond normal,

I don't know how you're gonna

convince me for that.

- I don't know.

You should see it though.

We build relationships with everybody.

Every time we come back to the hotel,

Wade starts dancing with the bellman.

We've found out the guy

likes to stretch and dance.

- Rex.

- Every time we get back...

Yeah, Rex, we start dancing with him.

- He's a gem.

He's just a sincere guy.

He came by to say hi this morning.

And I'm looking at him,

and I'm like, "I know this guy.

"This is the guy that

reminded me who Carlito is

"when I didn't recognize him last year."

And that's the way this all evolved.

So, congratulations on

a year under your belt.

- Thank you.

- And your second PCA, this

is all accurate so far.

- The third one, we just walked...

The first one we came

to, we just walked around

just to look at what--

- So, this is your third

PCA, second exhibiting.

- Yep.

- It's a cigar family.

- Right.

- And this cigar family

has been incredibly good to us.

Our guys get sentimental.

Our founders were

involved in that interview

with Litto [Gomez] and

his son, Tony, yesterday.

And they get sentimental,

because it is hard, and

it does take commitment,

and a lot of grit to hang in there.

- Well, there's these high highs,

and then you run into a bump in the road,

and you're like, "Are we

gonna make it through this?"

And then, you get highs and lows,

and the highs are really high

and the lows feel like they're terrible,

but you keep putting one

foot in front of the other,

and moving forward,

and we get to have these

great conversations.

- So, show your label to the camera

and then tell people where

to go to visit the website.

- Lovelycigars.com.

Pretty simple.

- Pretty easy.

- Yeah, it's lovely.

It's a Lovely Cigar.

A lovely bunch of guys.

I'm grateful that you endeavor

to share your story with us.

We're gonna stay tuned.

Try a Lovely Cigar today.

(tropical music)