Humo Latino Magazine sept. 2022 english

The Personal Touch of Yaniv Erez

The Personal of Yaniv

It is simply original. And although for some it may be polemical, Yaniv Erez is an entrepreneur faithful to his ideas and tastes, crystallized in a factory, three brands and a horizon without limits in the conquest of the World of Tobacco.

Personal Touch

Yaniv Erez

Of

Israeli origin, Yaniv Erez served in the Army of his country – like everyone there – and at the end of his military life he dedicated himself to both accounting and finance, until he became Chief Executive Officer (CEO). of a major com pany. However, before his 30th birthday he emigrated to New York City, United States, in search of a place in the business world.

city at least once in their lifetime. Maybe not to settle down, but to experience it. It’s a very special place, a different world. I went because I wanted to do something big, different... Not that Israel seemed not enough for me, but I wanted even more, and it was definitely the place to do it. I took a big risk that after some time paid off.”

He began to work on the financial issues of a Jewish company in which he was something like the money man, “but I quickly realized that this was not my thing, I needed to do something else.” So, soon after, in 1999, he

Alberto Arizmendi

“Why New York? –he repeats the answer–. Whoever you ask, wherever they come from, they would think about being in that

ventured into the Real Estate market of the metropolitan area, where in addition to the purchase and sale of properties he dedicated himself to acquiring resi dences for their subsequent rent.

He describes himself as a “very aggressive” person in the field of Real Estate, and at the same time considers himself a lucky man, since in 2006 he left that activity. “If we analyze it, it was a fortunate decision, taking into account what happened in 2008,” he says, with reference to the so-called Bubble or US housing crisis, which caused a great re cession and even affected the world economy.

It was during those years that Yaniv began his relationship with the cigar as a business: “I moved out to Miami Beach, Florida,” he says, “and after a couple of months of retirement he began to gain weight; he spent his days sitting outdoors, smok ing and drinking, doing virtual ly nothing. Then I said to myself, ‘I like cigars and I want to smoke whenever I want.’”

Being aware of the quality of cigars in the Dominican Repub lic, he traveled there and bought “a few thousand” cigars that were initially for his friends and for him, “but after a while I realized that people liked them and I bought even more and more, until they became a commercial activity, economic... “.

SMOKER

Like other producers of this generation, Yaniv smoked his first cigar when he served in the army, which in Israel is not con sidered a paid job, as it only re ceives an economic stimulus. However, he had access to cigars that he had not tried. During the

nineties there was not a great variety, but there he found the Dominican brands, accessible in terms of their price.

During his years in the Navy, on a combat ship, he could only enjoy a cigar when he was rest ing on land. “In those days I didn’t smoke anywhere near what I consume now,” he continues, “but I loved it. Doing the math, I think that with the money they gave me maybe it would be enough to buy a cigar a month.”

According to Yaniv, Israel and tobacco have no relationship, no matterhow it is these days. The business is still in a virgin state there, because there are not many shops and cigar lounges, the few that do exist are not very crowd ed. On the other hand, the price of cigars is very high due to the fiscal issue, and between taxes and shipping costs, prices rise more than 90 percent. The con sumer ends up paying almost double what the same cigar costs in the US.

But back to the issue of the militia, as a brand owner Yaniv donates weekly cigars to the U.S. Army. In fact, he recently partic ipated in an event at the West Point Academy and Base near New York. “I brought them a couple thousand cigars; we did some ads, and it was a lot of fun. I do it often, because the idea is that the soldiers could gain access to cigars.”

ENTREPRENEUR

As he said before, he decided to become a Tobacco Man after buying a first batch of 3 thousand cigars. He realized that both his friends and other people liked them “and that’s what I was re ally looking for.” He understood that he needed to produce and when he did, he confirmed that his cigars were different, that they were “beyond the ordinary”.

Therefore, since then he has tried to maintain a classic style man ufacture, old fashioned; “no extra nicotine or chemicals, all tradi tional and with an aging process not only for the leaves, but for the cigar once rolled. “ I under stood that in the market there is nothing like that, and I liked this activity more and more”.

In September 2009 he attended InterTabac, the world’s largest trade fair for tobacco products and smoking accessories, held in Dortmund, Germany. People go there to do business, to show themselves, but they don’t give away their cigars. “I brought cigars to give away and after a couple of hours someone came to ask me why I did it, that it was not customary ... ‘Oh, I answered, is that the problem? Have these 200 and give them away too.’”

He considers that this captured the attention of the attendees and was a way of announcing: “If they ask you not to give sam ples, then how are they going to know your cigars? There are different ways to do this, but I prefer to go to consumers directly rather than to the retailer. By showing off my cigars people loved them, so this endorsed my entry into the business,” he says.

Fortune was again on his side, as he began formally before the new legislation in the United States (the tightening of an ti-smoking regulation) came into force.

From there, it took two years for him to install his own factory in Tamboril, Dominican Republic: Tabacalera Erez. Now, at 50, he is an entrepreneur who again combines the Real Estate busi ness with the cigar business, “this is my passion, what I love, and like to do.”

A BRAND

From 2006 Yaniv produced in De Los Reyes Cigars, with Augusto Fufi Reyes, in the Dominican Republic, where he had a space for a group of rollers who made their cigar line, and in 2011.

When he started manufacturing on his own, he decided on a Lonsdale vitola (6 inches, ring gauge 46) with a Bahia wrapper, from Brazil. “It’s not a cigar I dreamed of,” Yaniv says, “that had certain notes or thought it would be special... just liked it.

So, when people started asking for other sizes he added a Toro, a Robusto, and made his varia tions with other wrappers.

“I didn’t know that it became a different cigar when wrapped with other tobacco and that is why the Erez brand carries the slogan One Blend, Three Wrap pers. “You can smoke a Habano, Connecticut or Maduro and each one has its qualities, because the

wrapping gives each cigar 65% of its flavor.”

He explains that another factor of the simplicity of the brand is that it offers the classic vitolas.

In what is now Erez, cigars carry a vertical ring with an oval sup ported by two strips, all with golden edges, on which the black letters stand out. At the foot, a second equally wide ring specifies the type of tobacco in the wrapper.

Erez offered 30 vitolas, ten of each type of wrapper (Ecuadorian Connecticut, Mexican San Andreas, Habano 2000):

 Robusto (5 inches, ring gauge 50).

 Toro (6 inches, ring gauge 50).

 Corona (51/2 inches, ring gauge 44).

 Lancero (7 ½ inches, ring gauge 38).

 Lonsdale (6 inches, ring gauge 46).

 Double Corona (6 ¼ inches, ring gauge 54).

 Belicoso (6 ½ inches, ring gauge 54).

 Gordo (6 inches, ring gauge 58).

 Gordo G (7 inches, ring gauge 60).

 Churchill (7 ½ inches, ring gauge 50).

 Erez Unlimited Box Pressed line (with more sizes to come in 2023) Gordo Box Pressed (6 inches, ring gauge 60).

Smokers appreciate consistency, and Yaniv knows it: “a certain cigar should always taste the same, without variations from the previous one you tried, and from the beginning to the end. That’s why, in our cigars, nothing changes.”

AGING

At Erez, the fundamental process is aging. “It’s not that we buy the best tobacco in the world or the most expensive. We differentiate ourselves by putting our cigars to sleep for a minimum of five years in natural boxes, without paint or other elements that can affect them; everything is at the same time.”

He also warns that not just any cigar can be aged, because there are those who make beautiful cigars, but because of the way they were rolled it is not feasible to age them. Manufacture must start from this intention and be done in a special way, so during the process it varies their size.

Yaniv gives as an example a batch of 90 thousand Double Corona (6 ¼ inches, ring gauge 54) and Lonsdale (6 inches, ring gauge 46) with San Andreas wrapper that they produced in 2012. “We liked them so much that we took 15,000 and kept them under lock and key in my personal humidor. As we have been in great demand for the last few years, I took those cigars and put them in 500 box es for sale. The packaging reads: ‘15 years aged cigars’. Those cigars have a better color and shrank so much, that the ring comes out.”

Another important aspect is to carry out the aging in separate humidors, according to the wrapper of the cigar, so that the different oils do not affect their flavor or color.

CHARACTER

Last year this entrepreneur tried something new and in order to evaluate the recovery of the market he presented The Land lord brand with a unique 4-inch cigar, ring gauge 64. “It was very well received and during the events I try to educate and inform my clients, I explain that it had a closed foot to provide more flavor. This cigar does not light like any other, because the idea is that the wrapper can ignite the rest to bring more flavor to the smoke”.

The image is a character. Think of a New York Landlord who owns an apartment building that is collapsing, but far from caring about the dilapidated state of the property, every end of the month he comes to collect the rent. It is self-centered and is always accompanied by a short and thick cigar. It’s like thinking of a kind of Humphrey Bogart in the fifties or an Al Pacino in his rough guys roles.

This cigar, made with a special Landlord blend, now exists in twelve vitolas: The aforemen tioned is called:

Short Sale - which in the Real Estate business is an offer of a property at an asking price that is less than the amount due on the current owner’s mortgage Gordito (4 inches, ring gauge 64) closed foot.

Hold Over - in reference to the act of recovering a house from a tenant. Perfecto (6 inches, ring gauge 63).

Eviction - which is the act of expelling a tenant from a property when rent is not paid Belicoso (7 inches, ring gauge 54).

Slumlord - the owner of a property who only cares about his money, Solomon (7 inches, ring gauge 58).

Unlike the other brand, these cigars are not aged and gain strength through other methods, these come with the traditional Erez tree wrapper.

GUARANTEE

Another distinctive feature of Erez is that it provides a guar antee of total satisfaction. That is, if someone tries one of its cigars and does not like it, they can return it for the full refund, “That’s the confidence I have in my brand,” Yaniv says.

Its packaging is also noteworthy. The boxes are white, simple, because it was sought to differentiate themselves from the rest of the brands in the stores hu midors, where dark tones and woods prevail. In addition, when placed in a display the cigars appear horizontally and the lid

is open, but is folded in half to highlight the brand.

Thus, when cigars are taken, the packaging does not look empty, because the cigars go down to the bottom, the visible space for the client. Also, in this there is variety: boxes of 20, 10 and 5 units; these last ones are rigid, small, for those looking for a gift, or take them as a traveling hu midor to the golf course. They are accompanied by a humidity control bag above 72%. “A lot of humidity? Yes, we like it that way; it’s our way of keeping them, no matter where they are.”

So, what is the philosophy of your business? Without hesita tion, he responds that there are those who tell him that they have never heard about his cigars, even though he has been on the market since 2006. “Well, yes, but I don’t advertise, I don’t sell on the Internet. We have a very bad website. But if you call me from anywhere and you want to buy cigars, I’m going to tell you where the closest store is located or just send you some.”

COMPETITION

Yaniv is not affected by compe tition and is not interested in what the rest of the companies do. He knows that in the stores you find products with different qualities, high and low, and hence

the interest in interacting with his customers and talking to people about cigars, in addition to making gifts to the stores, such as a humidor, which at the same time is advertising.

He says U.S. tobacco stores offer expensive cigars, “but if they sold Erez they would make more money.” For example, instead of spending on marketing, his company distributes through Brand Ambassadors, who show up in stores, give away samples and present promotions: “The same as others invest in adver tising, I use it to give away cigars and if only a 10 percent attract customers, I’m already doing business.”

Currently their purses are sold throughout the territory of the United States, in some places more and in others less. The important thing is that their products are diverse. He explains that when people visit a factory and start smoking to try, not everyone finishes a whole cigar. So, I had the idea to make some 4-inch cigars with the Gran Tamboril brand.

He took that line to the Tobacco Plus Expo (TPE) last January: Robusto, Toro, Belicoso and Gordo, “and several of them sold out. It’s a box with 28 closed foot cigars, for a 15 to 20 minutes smoke.” The success lies in the fact that when someone goes to a store, they spend between $12 and $13 for a large cigar and need about 90 minutes to finish it, but

with these they pay $6 and have a fast smoke with the same ex perience as a big cigar.

Yaniv doesn’t believes in the existence of a large hoarding public either. He acknowledges that we are currently experienc ing a new boom and “many young smokers are looking for nicotine, ammonia and strength. My cigars are not for them, because they have a flavor that they may not appreciate.” He does not consid er Erez to be a remedy for stress either.

THE IDEAS

He does not have a team for the development of the company or its brands. “I do it alone. I sit in a cigar lounge and think things...

At the end of the day, I’m a busi nessman running a business to make a profit. What did I do? A wooden box, the only one that always appears full on the side board, because I noticed that those that look new always sells better. These are strategies that take me a couple of months to design and concretize.”

The production in its Tamboril factory is more than 300 thou sand cigars per year, but as it sells them five years later, the once on the market are cigars from 2019, which at this point of the year were practically out of stock.

Among its future plans is to gain greater presence in the interna tional market. Although Erez is now sold in Europe, New Zealand, the Middle East, Lebanon and Africa, the idea is to reach more countries. “We just signed a contract with the Italian distri bution to be in stores across the country.”

This purpose of international ization responds to a couple of reasons: to try to lower taxes for consumers, because if someone wants to buy cigars in small quantities they can do it through a worldwide shipping company from the Dominican Republic, which is their distribution point.

“If someone wants to do business with me, I am here. Because we have such a variety of cigars that anyone can find something to make money with us... I’m a call away,” he says, premium cigars with a personal touch.

If someone wants to do business with me, I am here. Because we have such a variety of cigars that anyone can find something to make money with us... I’m a call away,”