InterTabac 2017: Micallef Cigars Enters European Market

One of the new faces at this year’s InterTabac is Micallef Cigars, a collaboration between Texan entrepreneur Al Micallef and the Gomez Sanchez family in Nicaragua that started in 2015. Since then they’ve introduced twelve cigar lines in the US. Now it’s time for Europe.

“Since this is our first year we’re here to introduce them all,” Jason Upshaw, director of European sales (left on the photo), says.” We’ve had phenomenal success in the US and it came to the point where we were ready for a larger market.

So they went to Big Smoke in Copenhagen at the end of May.

“That was our first trip over here and as soon as we came back we started planning a European launch.”

At the moment they are distributed in Germany by Kleinlagel, but the idea is of course to expand.

“We are exploring the distribution possibilities and part of my trip is setting up logistics. It works so different in Europe. We’re Texans and we can drive all day and still be in Texas. Here we pass through four, five countries, and each country has different rules.”