Cigar Weekly Interview with Ilja van Horssen of CUESTA-REY cigar shop
January 2004 -- Ilja van Horssen is the
proprietor of CUESTA-REY cigar shop. Recently Rod Gwinn (Niceash) of Cigar
Weekly had the fortunate opportunity to spend some time with Ilja in his
very nice shop in The Hague, The Netherlands.
NiceAsh: I have to say that this was one of the
nicest store fronts I have visited and both Ilja and his wife, Yvonne van
Horssen-Litz, were very gracious hosts. While I was there, I took some
time and chatted with Ilja about the cigar business, while I enjoyed an
SLR petit corona from 98 and a very good cup of coffee.
Cigar Weekly: Please give us a little
background, how did you get started in the cigar business? How long have
you been in the cigar business?
Ilja van Horssen: My family has been in the cigar business
since 1946, right after the war (1940-1945) my grandfather started buying
cigars and tobacco for rolling from small farmers and re-selling on the
open market here. Soon the amounts where so high for demand that these
small farmers couldn't supply enough tobacco so he and also my father went
in search for larger suppliers and in answer to that stores began to ask
for these products, so the demand increased much more. Around 1990 i came
into picture in my fathers company together with my brother a couple of
years later where we together began a handmade cigar import company under
the name Longfiller-Company as we where only in the rolling tobacco and
dutch machine made cigars and also wanted to play a roll in the handmade
cigar business. What interesting was that for example until early 1990's
no A. Fuente products where imported into the Netherlands so we simply
made a few calls to the European master importer called Mearaphell, also
known as the Cammeroen leaf family in Belgium and they approved us as
there local A. Fuente importer. Around 1996 i got the impression that
there where to few good sales points of handmade cigars and started my
plans to open a cigar shop where all mayor brands should be sold. In 1999
i opened the Cuesta-Rey cigar shop and since 2 years we are the largest
handmade cigar selling shop in the Netherlands and therefore found what i
was looking for, maybe time to move on and go for a new challenge in my
life.
CW: When did you start your online sales?
IvH: My nephew told me that I should do some advertising on this
"web" thing, so he set me up with an ad. This was in August, 1999. The
Internet sales started slowly, but picked up over time, About 40% of my
business is in sales to the United States.
CW: Everyone concerned with the cigar
industry feels that the Cuban Embargo will may be lifted in the next few
years, what impact do you see that having on the cigar industry?
IvH: It is also my opinion that the Cuban embargo will be lifted
in a couple of years, what the effect will be, i think nobody can say
exactly but everybody does has his opinion, like i do. As Europe has
always been the mayor player in sales of Cuban cigars i don't think that
we will be left out of stock here, what i do think is that the largest
amounts of cigars will be exporter to the USA, simply because both
countries are so close to each other, but also there is where the problem
will start. Cuba ain't big enough to supply the US demand, that is problem
#1, the second problem is that because of this high demand the quality
will for sure go down as production will be forced to go up and the only
effect on that is the quality. The third problem is in the US market
itself, already now the fakes are larger in quantities available then the
real thing, and now where talking about illegal products, when the embargo
is lifted these fakes will become legal products as it is sometimes
extremely hard to see what is real and what is not. Therefore the consumer
will get disappointed very often and will finally get so sick of this that
he will go back to his former supplier somewhere in Europe to buy his
Cuban cigars because they now that there they have never been disappointed.
CW: Which cigars do you enjoy smoking?
IvH: My personal taste is extremely wide, i smoke about 2-3
cigars a day and it depends in what mood i am what I'm smoking. I enjoy
Cubans as i do Dominican cigars, i do like the smaller cigars like a petit
corona and especially Saint Luis Rey (cuba) and for dominicans Opus X and
Ashton VSG. Note: For those of you that like the Fuente or Ashton
products, you would drool over the selection that Ilja has in his large
walk in humidor (rg)
CW: What direction do see retail sales of
premium cigars going?
IvH: I can only focus myself of what is going here in the
Netherlands and what i see is that there still is a lot to do here, the
selection between a top cigar shop and a tobacco sales point is still very
big here, what i mean to say is that there are only a handful of real
cigar shops that put all there energies into cigars and especially
handmade cigars and all the others have a small selection of these
handmade cigars but don't have no feeling with it. These last will be gone
in a couple of years from now, they will have to make a choice, or become
fanatic with cigars or stop with it, a choice in between won't be possible
to maintain there business. This choice is good for the customers as a
retailer must now what he/she is talking about and also offer a wide
selection for his customers.
CW: Well, I would like to thank Ilja for his
time and hospitality (and for a lighter that works!), I would definitely
recommend that if you visit the Netherlands, to take a trip to The Hague
and visit the CUESTA-REY cigar shop.
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| NiceAsh enjoying a '98 SLR petit corona with Ilja |
Find out more: CUESTA-REY cigar shop Website
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