Last week, the Premium Cigar Association (PCA) announced the PCA Alliance program. The PCA Alliance adds new membership tiers to the organization, including non-tobacco-related businesses and consumers. There isn’t a more hotly debated pair of words in the cigar industry than PCA and Consumers.

For most of its history, the PCA has been an organization for retailers. In recent years, the PCA has expanded its mission to become a full-service organization for the cigar industry’s various roles. The announcement of the PCA Alliance is the latest attempt to attract consumers. While the PCA Alliance will now offer consumers (and non-tobacco businesses) a membership, they will not gain access to the annual trade show.

There have been two times during my tenure of covering the cigar industry about opening up the Trade Show to consumers. It was suggested late in 2012. After an uproar, it was shot down a few months later. In 2019, the PCA tried again; this time, the Board of Directors voted to do it. This initiative was called CigarCon, and this was shot down even harder.

If you lived in New York City, you probably know of the ill-fated Westway project. This was a highway project on the West Side of Manhattan. Considerable public opposition by the residents in the area ultimately killed the project. Consumers at the Trade Show are the premium cigar industry’s version of Westway. There has been great public opposition to it. While there isn’t a Trade Show option for consumers on the table, there has been debate about even opening up the membership to consumers.

Prime Time Episode 320: Discussion on the PCA Alliance

We discussed this segment in detail on Prime Time Episode 320’s Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust Deliberation segment. We give our analysis:

• What was the motivation for the PCA Alliance?
• Will the PCA Alliance provide value to the members that join these new tiers?
• Does the fact that PCA Alliance overlaps with Cigar Rights of America underscore the fact that these organizations are not on the same page?
• Is it unfair for PCA Alliance Consumer members to not have Trade Show access?
• Is the PCA going too wide in terms of becoming a “full-service” organization?

Photo/Video Credits: Cigar Coop