J.C. Newman Cigar Co. filed applications to register 163 cigars on California’s Unflavored Tobacco List. An additional 35 J.C. Newman cigars are exempt from the UTL because their wholesale price is above $12. Under California Assembly Bill 3218 passed last year, premium cigars must either be listed on the UTL or exempt in order to be legally sold in California. J.C. Newman is pleased to announce that a total of 198 of its cigars will continue to be available in California.
Fourth-generation cigar maker Drew Newman issued the following statement:
“Since 1895, our family business has overcome two World Wars, the Great Depression, two pandemics, the Cuban Embargo, tax increases, smoking bans, FDA regulation, and countless other challenges. The California Unflavored Tobacco List is just the latest challenge that J.C. Newman has faced, and it certainly will not be the last.
“One of the reasons why our family business has persevered for four generations and 130 years is because we play by the rules. My father, uncle, and I want to assure our California retailers and consumers that 198 J.C. Newman cigars will continue to be legally sold in California by either being registered on the UTL or because they are exempt from the process. These 198 products encompass nearly all of J.C. Newman’s sales in California. In preparing our UTL applications, we erred on the side of caution. We wanted to include virtually all of our cigars on the market in California in order to help our retailers and prevent them from being stuck with products they can no longer legally sell.
“What’s most unfortunate about California’s UTL program is that premium cigars will shoulder a disproportionate share of its costs, even though they were never the law’s intended target. The state’s one-size-fits-all approach charges the same registration fee for every tobacco product, whether it is a premium cigar brand that sells 100 boxes a year or a mass-market product that sells 10 million packs annually. Premium cigars are handcrafted, artisanal products sold in small batches under a wide variety of brands and vitolas, in contrast to the limited number of high-volume mass-market tobacco products. Because of this, premium cigars will end up subsidizing other tobacco products.
“It is also clear that fees assessed by California are way too high. Yesterday, the California Attorney General’s office reported that the state has received 6,814 product applications so far. At $300 per application, these applications have generated more than $2 million in fees – with thousands of applications still to be submitted before today’s deadline. The amount collected so far is more than double the cost of operating the UTL. Because Assembly Bill 3218 directs the California Attorney General to raise only enough funds to pay for the program, he should decrease the cost of listing products on the UTL.
“From the founding of our family business 130 years ago to today, our family has always been dedicated to supporting brick-and-mortar cigar retailers. By ensuring that virtually all of the cigars we sell in California fully comply with the state’s new UTL requirements, we are reaffirming this longstanding commitment.
“Retailers can continue to count on J.C. Newman. Because our family name appears on every cigar we make, we take great pride in maintaining the highest standards of quality and integrity. We look forward to sharing exceptional cigars with California retailers and consumers for another four generations, just as we have for the past 130 years.”
