JEWELRY MAKER HOPES TO PROFIT FROM CIGAR CRAZE.Byline: Gregory J. Wilcox Daily News Staff Writer A Burbank-based jewelry manufacturer hopes to mine gold in the cigar craze. OroAmerica, which makes more than 1,800 styles of 14-karat gold chains, earrings, bracelets, rings and charms, said Thursday it will soon add premium stogies to its product line starting later this year. The company plans to introduce at least two product lines of hand-rolled cigars - one will be priced between $3 and $10 per cigar, and the other, a super-premium line, will start at $10. ``The company is seeking to capitalize on the recent growth of the premium cigar market,'' said Guy Benhamou, OroAmerica's chairman and chief executive officer. OroAmerica will spend about $3.4 million on the project during fiscal 1998, with the money coming from jewelry operations. The company has leased an 11,000-square-foot factory in the Dominican Republic and hired a manager. There are also plans for additional cigar-making facilities in Indonesia and Nicaragua. Although jewelry and cigar-making may seem like a strange combination, stogies are actually a natural new market for OroAmerica. The company already has jewelry manufacturing plants in the Dominican Republic and Indonesia, so executives are familiar with the local labor force and business regulations. ``A partner in Indonesia used to be in the tobacco business, so they have some experience,'' he said. A cigar industry expert said that Benhamou is getting into the business at the right time, because demand for premium cigars cannot keep up with supply. Norman F. Sharp, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Cigar Association of America, said that at the end of 1995, manufacturers had a backlog of orders for about 25 million premium cigars. By the end of last year, it had grown to more than 60 million. The reason? Smoking cigars, especially expensive ones, is back in vogue. Celebrities, from Michael Jordan to Danny DeVito, are smoking stogies. Some restaurants have set aside special rooms for cigar smokers, and private smoking clubs abound. ``It's kind of an enjoyment of life that has come back again,'' Sharp said, noting that the popularity of cigars has a lot to do with who is seen smoking them. ``When you see movie stars and sports figures smoking cigars, it kind of gives it a certain panache,'' he said. The only drawback to OroAmerica's plan could be getting enough wrapper A data structure or software that contains ("wraps around") other data or software, so that the contained elements can exist in the newer system. The term is often used with component software, where a wrapper is placed around a legacy routine to make it behave like an object. This is also called "encapsulation" or "wrapper encapsulation," but is not the same as "object encapsulation," a fundamental concept of object technology. See encapsulation and tunneling. leaf, which is in short supply, Sharp said. But Benhamou said that won't be a problem, thanks to his Indonesian partner's contacts in the tobacco business. ``Right now, we have enough wrapper to produce 12 million cigars,'' he said. The excess wrapper can be bartered for other tobacco, he noted. Investors reacted positively to OroAmerica's early morning announcement. The stock increased 25 cents to 5-1/8 on Nasdaq trading. Benhamou, a recent convert to the craze, can't wait to light up one of his company's creations. ``I'm not an old-time cigar smoker, but I do enjoy a good cigar,'' he said. CAPTION(S): Photo, 2 Charts Photo: (Color) OroAmerica Vice President David Wu, left, and Chief Executive Officer Guy Benhamou will be launching a line of cigars. Myung J. Chun/Daily News Chart: (1-2--Color) CIGAR SMOKING Sales of premium cigars in the United States has increased dramatically this decade. |
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