Craig Reynolds, who once led Cigars International and General Cigar Co., has joined Best Cigar Prices and its related companies as an advisor.
He told halfwheel that he will serve as an advisor to Greg Fox, the head of New Global Marketing, Inc., the parent company of Best Cigar Prices, a Drums, Pa.-based retailer. Best Cigar Prices includes an online retail operation, a physical store in Drums that has a full bar and kitchen, as well as a wholesale distribution arm, Alliance Cigar. All of that should be quite familiar to Reynolds, who spent more than a decade at Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG). Best known for his work at Cigars International, Reynolds’s tenure saw massive change for the world’s largest cigar retailer. Shortly after he started, the modern-day STG was formed through a merger that put Cigars International and General Cigar Co.—one of the largest handmade cigar companies—under one corporate entity. In 2016, STG went public through an IPO.
That era was one of rapid expansion for Cigars International, which acquired PipesAndCigars.com in 2013 and Thompson Cigar Co. in 2018. One of Reynolds’ final major projects was the long-planned expansion of physical Cigars International stores outside of Pennsylvania. Towards the end of Reynolds’ tenure, Cigars International opened its first non-Pennsylvania location outside of Dallas; today, the company has 15 stores throughout five states.
He eventually rose to oversee all of the handmade cigar division for STG, including General Cigar Co. He left in mid-2020.
Since then, he took a consulting job with Drew Estate, which came to an end last year. With his non-compete set to expire, he’s taking the role with Best Cigar Prices/New Global, though said he doesn’t have specific plans. Instead, he wants to be a resource for Fox, whether that be bouncing ideas off of or on specific projects.
For its part, Best Cigar Prices has made multiple signals that it intends on being a larger player. The most notable is the merger with Alliance Cigar, however, it’s also made other notable hires and added the Smoke-onos, a multi-vendor event somewhat reminiscent of Cigarfest, a multi-day Cigars International event that was once the largest consumer cigar event though was canceled during the COVID-19 pandemic and the concept has since changed.
Reynolds will start his new role in September.
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