lane stokkebye shakeup

[bregolad]

Some of you may already know this, but this just showed up in my twitter feed this morning.
It seems like lane is committing to keep everything exactly the same, but who knows.

http://pipesmagazine.com/blog/pipe-manu ... -shake-up/

[Skip]

At my store, The Briary, we did our annual show on February 4th. This marked the first time in quite a while that Erik Stokkeby did not attend. He did send our sales rep, Mike Schaefer. Even though it was suposed to be old news about The Stokkebye company no longer selling the products with their names on it, it was then that I found out. I was told that the tobaccos were going to be distributed by either Lane LTD or General Cigar.
We went out and bought a large quantity of those blends but the ones that do not seem to be available are the ones that come in the boxes. Twist Flake, Navy Flake and Bulls Eye are just not around. Panic set in and we sold out of all three. It sounds like we will not see any of those for some time. It is also normal for some blends to be discontinued any time a new company takes over.

Today I recieved a letter from The Villiger Stokkebye company stating that Erik has resigned. His replacement is already in place. This really sucks!

[indigosmoke]

Here's some info from a pipe smoking forum that was posted recently:

There have been some rumors/slight panic of late regarding lack of availability for products in the Peter Stokkebye portfolio. I just wanted to put the rumors to rest and let everyone know about some recent changes. As of April 1, Lane Limited will take over most of the pipe tobacco portfolio from Villiger-Stokkebye International, including:

•Peter Stokkebye Bulk
•Escudo
•Erinmore
•Stanwell
•Orlik
•W.O. Larson
•Balkan Sasieni
•Skandinavik
•Sail
•Troost

So, what does this mean for pipe smokers? Most importantly:

•The products themselves are NOT changing. They will be produced at the same factory, using the same leaf and the same recipes as they always have.
•The prices are NOT changing. We are committed to NOT raising the list price for these products.
•The portfolio is NOT changing. Not one sku has been eliminated.
•Product availability WILL change. This is because it's part of my job to make sure we are never out-of-stock on these items again.

Anyway, just figured some folks would like to know...

Leonard Wortzel
Brand Manager, Pipe and RYO Tobacco
Lane Limited

He also posted:

"The new president has actually been on the job since Monday, when he met with sales teams. MacLaren says the company wants to be recognized as more than just a pipe tobacco producer. “We’re now a cigar company that sells pipe tobacco.”

Regarding Villiger-Stokkebye and pipe smokers... Well, that quote above from the new pres pretty much says what their focus will be going forward. Can't begrudge a business decision; they clearly feel there's a lot more money to be made in the cigar side.

Again, our current favorite tobaccos will not suffer as a result of their decision. The real loss - and hopefully a temporary one - is Erik Stokkebye's presence as a leader in the world of pipe tobacco.

- Leonard Wortzel

[Skip]

They can say what ever they want about how they will not change any thing just improve availability but, it has been my experience that some of the blends will fall by the wayside. Lane dropped all but the best sellers of their own blends a few years back.
We sell a lot of the deluxe blends in the boxes. I know that they are not the top sellers over all. I sure hope that they do not drop them.