- Here we are with the "Show & Tell" at PCA 2024. Joining us today is Remon Mansour, a guy who had an idea. And we did an interview last year, we had a conversation about what you're up to. And I just came back from your booth down there. Dude, it has blown up! - Thank you. - And this guy right here- - We're blessed. - Yeah, you're blessed, - You got it. - and you work your butt off. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Yeah, what'd they say about luck?
It's something about when hard work meets opportunity or something like that, you make your own luck. - Make your own luck, I mean, like I said, thank God. You know, you put in...
You know, you put in the hours, you put in the work and you kinda let it be and, you know, whatever happens, happens, right, in life and- - So if you didn't see the previous episode, he came up with the idea of having a self-contained humidor to put into non-traditional places like liquor stores, golf courses, what have you. Is that fair? - That's right. - Yeah, so he has this idea, he comes in with his scratch pad and all his stuff, he's hanging out at the show.
And we were fortunate to be in your way and you told us about your idea, and we were really blessed to be involved. And so, that whole category in your business has taken off. I think, in talking to you a few times I've seen you in the last year, it's exceeded your expectations, it continues to grow. If you're interested, you go to cigarbros.com, you can see all the goodies that they've come up with. This came out of a family that's had a Cash & Carry in San Diego area.
And your latest brainchild. I was laughing so hard when you came over and stood on the box, or you had the big guy. - That's right, Alan. - Yeah, he just gave me a hug. I went down there. You had just a giant human being standing on this humidor. Tell the story about this and how you came up with it. - Essentially, with the original concept with Cigar Brothers, we set out to simplify freshness. That freshness should be automatic, it should be included.
If you go into a retail store and it used to be, you know, you walk into any shop and you question whether or not a cigar's fresh, and you're pinching at it, and... And so, when we tried to go into non-traditional retailers, the first step was how do you make sure that freshness is never a question. And we think we accomplished that. Our units are climate controlled, they're in tubes. And rest assured you reach into any of our humidors, you know you're getting a fresh stick.
And so we're doing that and thank God we're in 37 states, we're in about 1,300 locations now, a bunch of customers waiting. And we're just trying to keep up, - Fantastic. - We're trying to catch up. And so, that's doing its thing. The evolution to that became for the customer that wants to take cigars home. And that's a whole 'nother world of maybe, you know, questionable, maybe, traditions with keeping cigars fresh at home. And there's a lot of misconceptions with cigars.
And there's a lot of automatic set of rules that everyone thinks that they need to abide by or they should, because of what's... You know, you have to have a... You have to have a humidor before you can have your first box of cigars at home. You have to season your humidor and all that. And which is a, it's all fine, it's all beautiful. It's a beautiful industry.
But there's a learning curve, and there is kinda that barrier for, I would say the majority of America that maybe wants to, you know, jump into the world of cigars, just doesn't know how or doesn't have the time. And so, I developed the first prototype. And we launched this last PCA, and it's a, essentially a humidor made out of EPP, highly durable, super lightweight, includes a Boveda, airtight, waterproof, and you know it's fresh.
You keep cigars in there and a single pack is good for over a year. And freshness is never a question, especially if you reach in the humidor and that Boveda pouch is soft it's done, there's your answer. No question about it, your cigars are fresh. And so, we had a really, really good response to that. - So this was first - And- This was first. And then the evolution to that became number of sizes.
- Okay. - So now that one holds 80, we brought it down to one that holds 5 one that holds 10, 20, and 30. And they all kind of, depending on if you're on the go, if you wanna have a variety of cigars and maybe a cutter and a lighter, maybe get the size 10. And so, these all launch May 1st and we're taking pre-orders today. But in this and in what we do, essentially we're not really in the humidor business, we're in the cigar business.
And we try to develop the right humidor for the right customer. And so, this evolved to our collaborations. And here's one we did with Oliva. - Okay, this is beautiful. And I love this, because I love Oliva. So tell us about the collaboration with Oliva. - So we have 11 companies we're collaborating with, and this is an all-in-one solution for anyone that wants to bring cigars home. Any brick-and-mortar can carry this in just in a easy buy. - This is loaded
with Oliva cigars? - That's loaded today with Oliva cigars, you can open it up. - I just wanna look, I'm not gonna take any - Absolutely, absolutely. - Promise I won't take any. (Remon laughs) (Drew laughs) - Oh, you're welcome to. (Drew giggles) - So this is the Oliva Serie V Melanio. Ho ho, that is a great stick! So how many different cigar houses are doing collaborations with you? - Today, 11, and we got a whole line of guys- - Only 11 so far? - So far 11 brands.
- Dude, that's pretty amazing progress. When did you come out with this? - Maybe four weeks ago we started the collaborations. (Drew laughs) Yeah. - Four weeks ago! Oh, there they are. Those little beauties, They're packed in here. The Melanio Vs. Of course, there's a Boveda pack in here. I'm sorry, I interrupted you, keep going. - No worries, so to us... - So you could ship this? - We are shipping this. So we developed... It starts with where we want these to be placed.
Besides brick-and-mortar, we believe an important place is where is, you're maybe someone that may be newer to cigars, - Yeah. - maybe goes into other websites and you wanted to- - And they don't have a humidor. - And they don't have a humidor, and so... - What's this retail for? - They range from about $150 to $250 depending on the brand. So- - And that's with cigars in it? - With the cigars fully loaded. - So this without cigars... - That's 50 bucks. - 50 bucks? - Yeah, exactly right.
- And it's durable. - Absolutely, yep. - Yeah, I mean, it is super convenient. You can stand on it. - Yep, so, matter of fact, this is our shipping box as well as a humidor because it can take damage, super lightweight. We slip it in a bag, it's no UPS driver's gonna damage that. And so, what you know is when you order, whether you're ordering just a humidor or one with cigars, if it's shipped in our box, - It's gonna be good. - it's gonna be fresh and it's gonna be undamaged.
Because this thing is very- - Which is a big deal with cigar shipments. - Yeah. - Because I can't tell you how many online cigar purchases I've made where the box shows up and it looks like it's been through a meat grinder, (Remon laughs) you know, with half a brick of sticks hanging out the side of it. So, and no offense - Yeah. - to the online retailers, but if they don't pack them just so, that corrugated, it can be a nightmare.
- Absolutely, and then what happens if it's sitting outside for a couple of days and you just, you weren't home. - Well, and this is also insulated. - Exactly right, so you can leave this bad boy out for weeks. - Even in Minnesota? - The- Probably. - Maybe. (Drew laughs) I don't know if I would. But the idea is on its way to you. - It's gonna make it safe and sound. - It'll make it safe.
And then you bring it in and then the Boveda will do its thing, and then... - So if I buy one of these, when I go to buy more cigars, do I buy the cigars from you? - Well, you'll buy them from our retail partners. - Okay. - So we wanna support retailers, whether it's brick-and-mortar or online. So today for example, we have... Wooden Cork is one of our partners, they're a liquor online store and they have an amazing liquor website.
And if you went to their website today and you're going to check out and you bought your favorite spirit, well, the website would recommend a good pairing of your favorite cigars - Oh, awesome. - that would go to it. And so, that's who we wanna support. - Yeah, that's great! - So these guys're not really in the cigar business, but they can be. - How long's that collaboration been going on? - This is just in a few weeks. We started with one test, which was a Romeo [Romeo Y Julieta] box.
- Yeah. - In two weeks, simply on their checkout, so when someone's buying their whatever they're buying - Yeah. - and they're going to check out and they're not there for cigars, and then we only had - it's like people that bought this also like that. And so you show them - Yep. - This opportunity, - It goes good with that. - How successful's it been? - And- It was $170 add-on for that box of Romeos. So they're checking out and it recommends it.
We were curious, would the customers see it, understand it? - It's one thing to open it - And then- - and look at it, it's another thing to buy it. - Yeah. Well, they click and buy. And in two weeks I think they sold 55 boxes or something like that, of just that one Romeo. And so, the owners of of this website were just blown away. - Yeah! - They couldn't imagine that they would all, in the matter of, you know, overnight being now in the cigar business. - That's great.
- Yeah, and so we're- - Great performance. - Yeah, yeah. - What a great test. - Yes, we were happy with it. - So now you have that data to share with other people when you're standing over at your really impressive booth. I love the way you've merchandised these things to show the story, to tell the story about what's possible. You're making it easy for people to buy cigars. - Absolutely, and we think what we...
We think with this and going into this direction and with a variety of sizes, that tomorrow's buyer or tomorrow's customer of cigars likely could be where he's got four or five or six of these at home with his favorite brands in them. - Yeah. - And he's consuming them right out the box. He has one in his car, one in his office, and that's how he or she enjoys their cigars rather than maybe a bigger humidor at home and then they- - Right.
- So it just opens it up to all kind of good- - Well, you've got a really good seal. I mean, one of the things about humidors, I usually use a Pelican™ case, you know, I've got like, - Yup. - a 40-count Pelican case. The seal on this box is as good as the seal on my Pelican case. - Yep. - There's a little more surface area than there is on the gasket on my Pelican case, so I get it. I don't know what you call this material, but it's really effective at keeping the... There's no leaking.
- Yeah- - That's a really big deal! Because so many wooden humidors naturally leak. You know, sometimes people buy our 72 or 75% humidity packs because their humidors leak and they live in like, Arizona or Nevada or somewhere. They gotta compensate for the leaking in the box. It's a big deal, you've accomplished that. - We hope so. I think we have, I think, two things. One, it was important, you know, that I got the stamp of approval from Boveda. I sent the first ones out to Jay [Fifield] to,
you know, test these. - Jay. - Make sure that they don't- - You love Jay, don't you? - I love Jay, that's my man, there. (Drew laughs) So it was tested, and just like, I had hoped, you know, it works. - Dude, if you're getting that much adoption that fast and you've only been really doing this for four or five weeks, we gotta do this again at the next show and compare notes to see where this went. Because that's, that's with one line, right?
That's with one collaboration that they did that volume. - Yes. - At Wood and... - Wooden Cork, yep. - Wooden Cork. So it's gonna be so much fun next year to compare notes. If you'll still talk to us at that point, you may have some people - Of course I'll, yes. - that we need to talk to instead of you. (Remon laughs) I hope we always have access to you. - No, you'll always have access, that's for sure. - All right, that's Remon Mansour.
This dream, we get to come to PCA and watch dreams come true, not only with the self-contained stand-up humidor, that was at least the first brainchild. I'm sure you had a lot of ideas before we met. But that idea was dynamite and you did an awesome job of executing that, that's still going gangbusters. This idea launched how long ago? - So last July was when we introduced that. - That's not even a year old.
- Not even a year old, yeah. - Okay, so this isn't even a year old and this is going well? - Thank God, yes. - Okay. And then, this baby with the brand collaboration, these cigar houses are getting wise to making it easy for their customers to enjoy their cigars and know that they're gonna be fresh. We couldn't be happier for you and your success, it's a treat to be associated with you. You're one of the most stand-up guys I've met in the industry, - Sure. - it's just a privilege to know you.
- Oh, likewise, I mean, you're an amazing man, your whole team, - Yeah. We have a good bunch. - Through and through, you guys are all very great guys. You know, I was talking to the team earlier. And I personally believe to truly try to do something and make it work and be successful is that it has to be an element of honesty - Yeah. - in your product and what you do through and through. And if you can do that, and I think things work out. Things, you know, turn out right.
So there's no shortcuts. And so, you guys really... Your product in itself, you can't get any more honest than that. And I was explaining that to them, is Boveda itself, when you reach into your humidor and it's soft, you know it's working. And if it's hard, you know you need to replace it. It doesn't get more honest than that, right? - That's right. - And so, I appreciate that, I appreciate your team, (calm Latin music) and I always love talking to you guys.
- And we've successfully gotten through another interview without crying. (Remon chuckles) It's really a privilege to know you, buddy. - Likewise. - Thank you very much. - Really appreciate it. - Next year we're gonna have a checkup from the neck up, find out how you're doing. - All right, can't wait. - Thanks, Remon. (Remon chuckles)