Getting on the cigar band wagon? (Cigars).

In the aftermath of the cigar craze of the mid-1990s, and the increasing strength of anti-smoking forces, are clubs still interested in customized cigar bands and customized accessories such as ashtrays and leather travel cases? The answer to that question varies widely among clubs and suppliers. Mike McCarthy, general manager of the Pottawattomie Club in Michigan City, IN, believes that "cigar smoking is coming back." His club just started to put its logo on cigar bands about 18 months ago--well after the peak of the cigar boom.

The cigars with the logo are sold in the pro shop, in the clubhouse bar, at the golf course snack shop, and on the beverage cart that serves the golf course. "The personal recognition of the club logo is impressive to members because they feel they are showing off their club a little more," McCarthy said. "When they bring guests into golf, they like to buy them a couple of cigars with the club logo on them. It's kind of an ego stroke for the member to show off his club." For the club's annual member/guest golf tournament, Pottawattomie even adds a second custom cigar band to its stogies, a band that commemorates the tournament. For awards, the club distributes a gift box that includes the customized cigars.

McCarthy's supplier, CigarZDirect, also sells the club a miniature golf bag that clips onto the real golf bag. It holds four cigars in tubes and has a zipper with slots for a cutter and a lighter. "The advantage of that," McCarthy said, "is that maybe everybody doesn't smoke cigars, but the little bag is a place to put jewelry, a kind of a traveling safe while you're playing."

McCarthy recommends that clubs stock good-quality, custom-label cigars. "I don't think it's a big profit center, but you're providing a wonderful service to your members and it is profitable if maintained right," he said. CigarZDirect is an Atlanta company owned by Walter Troxel, who supplies about 400 clubs in 22 states. His main business is the sale of private-label cigars that include custom bands.

One would assume that, to get its name or logo on the bands, a club would have to place a huge minimum order. That's true with some suppliers, but Troxel said CigarZDirect has succeeded by keeping minimum order requirements low. His minimum order for custom bands is four boxes, or 100 cigars. There's a $100 one-time fee for the artwork, but even that is waived when the order exceeds six boxes. After that, the club can order just one box at a time. The most popular cigar, Troxel said, is a Cameroon-wrapped Churchill, seven inches with a 50 ring size. His wholesale price to clubs on this is $4.50 per cigar, including the custom band.

The Churchill sells well "because it's a great golf course cigar," he said. "The reality is that cigars are primarily smoked on the golf course, so even smoke-free clubs can buy from us."

Well, not all of them. There are a few clubs, such as the Polo Club of Boca Raton, FL, that even prohibit smoking on the golf course. CigarzDirect also does custom packaging and looks for accessories that can be customized for clubs--cigar boxes, leather travel cases, cutters, lighters, ashtrays, humidors. Some items that are created for special events, such as engraved cigar boxes, can be used by non-smoking recipients who give away the cigars and keep the box for pens or trinkets.

"If it's a mass thing, like a member/guest tournament," Troxel said, "we try to anticipate the fact that not everybody's going to smoke cigars, so we come up with things that have an afterlife, so then it becomes just a commemorative item."

The company's most unusual service is to laser engrave a cigar itself, which doesn't damage the cigar, Troxel said. Jean Thysse has been a customer of Troxel's at two country clubs that Thysse has managed: Copper River in Fresno, CA, and Four Hills in Albuquerque, NM, his current posting. He said the club logo on bands has increased cigar sales at both places, and helps the image of the clubs.

"I try to logo everything to promote the club," Thysse said, "Not just inside the club, but outside as well, for membership purposes. If whatever you put your logo on is good quality, members will come back to you and they will trust your product."

Riviera Country Club in Coral Gables, FL, has never had a custom cigar band. "But we have 21 percent Latin membership, so cigars are in," said general manager Bill Wagner, CCM. "At most of our club functions that have outdoor components, like cocktail parties, we almost always bring in cigar rollers, and they roll the cigars to order."

Riviera has a no-smoking clubhouse, except during two stag events each year. But when the nosmoking policy began, Wagner added outdoor dining tables to accommodate members who wanted a cigar with their dinner and drinks. "And they smoke on the golf carts," he said. "In fact, I'm looking now to see if there's such a thing as a cigar holder for a golf cart."

F&K Cigar, a wholesaler in St. Louis, MO, is one of the suppliers that requires a large order, such as 1,000 cigars, to provide a custom-label cigar. "Private label--you have to be careful with that," said F&K's Gerard Ezvan. "During the cigar boom, everybody wanted a private-label cigar. When the boom faded, these guys got stuck with thousands of cigars that they didn't know what to do with."

His solution is to offer a customized second band that can be added to a cigar that already has a band from, say, Punch or Hoya de Monterey. "The club is better off with a name-brand cigar and a second band with the club's name or logo on it," Ezvan said. That can be done without a large minimum order. The one accessory that F&K will customize is a cutter. A private-label, guillotine-style cutter can be produced in quantities as low as 250, he said. Sometimes, however, the cost of the imprinting exceeds the wholesale cost of the cutter itself.

The Washington Athletic Club, a city club in Seattle, has been selling private-label cigars since 1998. Robert Bonina, vice president of food and beverage, said they are popular with members. "We also use them for in-house events," he said, "like our boxing tournament every February. Part of the admission includes a cigar. We have an annual anniversary celebration in the cigar lounge that features a private-label cigar."

Bonina said his members' interest in cigars hasn't waned. The big problem, he said, is Washington's 130 percent tax on tobacco, the highest of any state. "To get around that, we've become our own supplier. We've got a wholesale license to buy direct from Santa Clara Cigar and we deal direct with a Dominican Republic manufacturer on our private-label cigar." Like most clubs, the Washington Athletic Club works on a small markup on cigars, so acting as its own wholesaler helps to compensate for the tax hit.

Brian Shapiro, co-owner of Casual Cigar Enterprises in South Norwalk, CT, said the demand for custom labels is weak. Casual Cigar, founded by his family in 1932, supplies name-brand cigars to clubs at what he calls "true wholesale" prices.

"Most people who smoke cigars, even the clubs, prefer the name brands," Shapiro said. "There's no appeal for a cigar that says `Joe Shmo's Country Club.' They'd rather see the name Cohiba on it."

His company does some custom-label business, he said, but it's mainly a "gimmick" for individuals celebrating a birthday or an anniversary. One exception is The International, a club in Bolton, MA, that Shapiro calls "one of the largest cigar-using country clubs I've ever seen." That club is working on a private-label program, he said, "but they have such a huge smoking clientele that if The International puts out a cigar with its name on it, they absolutely know the quality is there. We've been bringing them down to Honduras to start from the ground up and work on a blend for them."

Shapiro is not a fan of customized accessories, either. Most of that business is done by companies whose main business is the importing of the accessories, he said.

"Except for the major cigar manufacturers who use these accessories as promotional items," he said, "there really is very little call for customizing that stuff, because cigars have become a secondary item. At many of the clubs, you can only smoke on the golf course, not indoors. So most of the clubs just want to buy cigars and that's it."

Last year, Casual Cigar also carried the miniature golf bag with the cigar holder and lighter and cutter in it. "Those bags could be customized with the names of clubs and so forth," Shapiro said. "We took very few orders for them."