Hello everyone! I hope you are keeping well, the weather is brightening up now and we are getting an influx of online orders to enjoy the nicer weather.

Monday was a lot busier than usual, we had a lot of online orders specifically for cigars. It felt nice when we finally completed our order pickings. I certainly enjoyed having the humidor products downstairs in the old shop space. It made picking orders with humidors a lot easier. I noticed a lot of travel humidors were being picked – It would seem like everyone wants their top quality cigars on their holiday (who wouldn’t). Afterwards I created a Cuban cigar order, our stock levels are quite good, a few favourites are out of stock but overall we are doing well. 

On Tuesday, I spent some time writing a new article for the C.Gars cigar library – It’s called Montecristo Cigars: Prices, Formats & What UK Smokers Need to Know – You can read it here. I also spent some time speaking to our SEO specialist to see how we can improve the cigar library software that we use. Currently it’s in a bit of a trial mode as I use it the most, I tend to find out the bugs in the system. However, he has assured me he is working on it for me. Afterwards, I planned my cigar subscriptions. It’s difficult to decide what cigars to use each month as I like to keep it different. Personally I like to try different things and I’d like to think my subscribers feel the same and so when I put something out of the ordinary in there, it’s great to see some good feedback. I also noticed a new cigar selection from Kristoff, It’s a fabulous little box of 8 Robustos. It’s called the Kristoff Robusto Sampler Pack, make sure you get yours now.

Wednesday, Lisa and I decided to do a stock count. You will see why in a moment. Together we started on the Cuban cigars before moving to the New Worlds. I also noted a few brands that have been overlooked and passed them onto our brilliant marketing team, hopefully you’ll see a few on our newsletters and want to give them a go. 

On Thursday, we were slightly short staffed due to some of our management team being on a training course. Once I completed the online orders, I opened a very large delivery of Kristoff cigars! I was very happy to see it but also overwhelmed as to where I would put it! However, I made a space and luckily they all (just about) fitted in our humidor. Afterwards, I looked at our out of stock list going back to last year! This will be where our suppliers haven’t been able to get the stock but we don’t want to take the product offline. I made a large list and asked Chris, if it is worth speaking to our suppliers to see if they have any stock at all or taking some offline. Later in the day, Chris gave me another job of going through a spreadsheet and judging if some products should be on offer. These will be under-performing cigars by the numbers (this doesn’t mean they are bad cigars, as there could be a variety of reasons) that might need a little push in the right direction with a lower price. My favourite price drop so far is the Davidoff Grand Cru Diademas Finas Limited Edition 2024 – I was able to take £13 off the full price! Make sure you check it out as I will be reviewing them next month! 

On Friday, I had a training session about effective communication. I certainly took a lot from our session and will be using it going forward. Afterwards, I helped pick online orders and carried on with my spreadsheet. As you may have noticed, I have been doing a lot more computer work, the truth is I love it! I have been on computers for as long as I can remember and so this is second nature to me.

I hope you have all enjoyed this weeks goings on.

So long for now.

Oliver

Hello everyone, It has been a rather different week for me this week. Less computers and more manual labour! 

Monday was another busy day with plenty of online orders. On Friday before the weekend, I actually lowered the price of the My Father Jaime Garcia range to see if the price was putting customers off trying them, and it turned out I was right. Since lowering the price, many customers purchased one to see what they are like – It sounds like a great cigar to have in the late morning/early afternoon. Get yours whilst you can at this low price. After all of the online order picking, I created a Cuban cigar order, I love getting so much done on a Monday as it makes the rest of the week seem easy (even though it isn’t).

Tuesday was a big day for us all. After online order picking, A few members of the team started making the ex-shop look more like a warehouse. They started by building some shelving and bringing down humidors from a room upstairs. The team did a fantastic job! But what did I do? Well I spent all of my time in the New World humidor, rearranging it all alphabetically to make finding stock easier as well as making our stock counts more efficient – something we would find out later.

On Wednesday, I carried on with the New World humidor – this was not an easy task and it took a lot more energy than I had expected but I got there! We also made more space for more cigars to fit in, so it was an extra bonus! Meanwhile the rest of the team kept bringing down more stock! It’s unbelievable how much this place looks less than a shop now.

Thursday was stock count day. Lisa and I counted everything as quickly as we could and almost everything was in the perfect place and we even came up with some ideas to fit even more stock in. I also found out our cigar brand of the month for March is Rocky Patel! A fantastic brand, well known around the world. Keep an eye on our website for some amazing deals on Rocky Patel cigars. After the stock count, I noticed Lewis had been very busy on the C.Gars cigar library. Once exciting article is about an exclusive evening with Alexander Groom! He is the author behind the El Habano Moderno books – Click here to read more.

On Friday, I was back on my computer. I started the day by picking orders, afterwards I completed the finishing touches to the shop newsletters. I then updated the stock of our Cuban cigars as well as some of the accessories. I then focused on creating an article for the C.Gars cigar library. This one is called Dominican Cigars – A Guide to the Best Brands Available in the UK. I enjoyed writing this article and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do, click here to read. I spent the afternoon improving an old article of mine which needed a few tweaks, and then just a general tidy up ready for another week.

I hope you have enjoyed this weeks blog.

So long for now.

Oliver

Hello everyone from the Norfolk Warehouse! Another week goes by and the realisation of us being a warehouse is in full flow.

On Monday, we were amazed by the amount of online orders we had – at this time of the year and especially considering the weather currently – We don’t expect loads of orders but it really shocked us. We didn’t panic and just like a well oiled machine we got the job done. Afterwards I contacted all of our cigar suppliers to see if there were any stock issues, of which I am pleased to say there aren’t many and then I sent a stock report on our out of stock Cuban cigars to our Head of Operations to see what she could do. In the afternoon, I ordered some Cuban stock (in the hope we get it all). It does seem like the popular cigars are easy to get but not the more obscure lines like Sancho Panza and Saint Luis Rey. 

On Tuesday, I focused on the C.Gars cigar library. I now have the help of one of our marketing specialists Lewis (you may have seen him on our Youtube channel). Together we have been given a large list of articles that need writing and uploading. This week four articles were uploaded! A highlight for me was the Top 10 cigars of 2025 – It is fascinating to see what our most popular cigars are chosen by you! You can read it here, but make sure you check out all of our articles. As well as creating articles, I improved some old ones so they will get more views from people using Google. In between articles, I had a look at some of our oldest out of stock products to see if there was any I could put online. I then contacted our suppliers to see if they have stock of which I found some we will never get again, so I then have to take them off the website.

On Wednesday, I focused on the shop newsletters. Even though I no longer run a shop anymore, my knowledge on the products certainly helped me create the newsletters with the shops. Like I have always said, you need to travel to each of the shops to truly appreciate the uniqueness of each store. C.Gars Leeds have started doing Whisky Flight Nights on Fridays (when they don’t have a cigar sampling event). I think it’s a great idea for £15. Afterwards, Lisa and I started our weekly stock count. We decided to start with Cuban cigars to get them fully completed in a day and then move onto New World cigars. Late on in the day I was tasked to check a price difference between two suppliers. It looks like we can now get PDR cigars from two different suppliers and so I was tasked to see the price difference so we can pass those changes onto our customers. So if you see some PDR cigars go down in price, you are welcome. 

Thursday was stock count day. We were given a new stock sheet to use as a lot of our cigars have had slight name changes, but this was good as the new sheet only had everything that was online at the time, and so anything we found that wasn’t on the stock sheet I put online, it felt like a fantastic day. Afterwards, I was given another task from Chris our assistant manager and my Yoda – He wanted me to find out the sales of certain cigars for January and compare them to February, all the ones he had chosen were on sale in January and not on sale in February and he wanted to see the difference in sales and see if its a popularity issue with the cigar or a price issue. Again I found it very fascinating to see and completed it as soon as possible.

Friday was upon us. We started our day by picking orders and then we started moving stock around the warehouse. We are now moving all pipe tobacco into one room with Ben, so he can manage our stock levels a lot easier. It certainly is an interesting office for him but he will soon get used to it and the best part? His office is next to mine! By the way, I still haven’t moved from where I used to sit in the shop. I have now just claimed it as my office! Afterwards I started to organise our New World humidor, just like I did with the Cuban cigars a couple of weeks ago, all New world cigars will be placed alphabetically. It helps a lot during stock count and if we have any new starters it will help them when picking orders. We have already organised our Davidoff/Plasencia section so it goes alphabetically perfectly – the rest of the brands will just be a bigger task – But as always we will get there!

I hope you have enjoyed this week’s going on.

So long for now.

Oliver.

Hello everyone from the Norfolk warehouse! As I get used to having no shop my new role has really taken over!

Monday was the usual busy day of online pickings. Josh and I have always worked well together and this was no different. Both Josh and I worked together to pick all of the orders extremely fast. We both noticed how we are getting more orders for the Regius Orchant Seleccion Nicaragua 2024 Robusto. We had it as a try something new previously and I think it’s really opened some people’s eyes to how good it actually is. After picking orders, I set to work ordering some Cuban stock from our lovely suppliers Hunters & Frankau. We are never guaranteed what we are going to get but we always try to get your favourites like the Montecristo No. 4. Later on in the day I helped pack orders just to get us over the finish line and make sure all of the orders go out on the same day.

On Tuesday, I was learning some more about my new role. I have been thrown in at the deep end with this, but I am loving it! This time I learnt when to take a product offline altogether. So you may see some items saying currently out of stock, but some products disappear altogether. Those that have disappeared should never come back but those that are still visible means we may get them back at some point. I also created all my leaflets for all three April cigar subscriptions. These take a lot of energy out of me due to the amount of concentration but I always feel a sense of accomplishment when complete. Also make sure you sign up to the subscriptions as you save a lot of money doing so! 

Wednesday was a bit different for me. I was back in the parcel booking on department, ensuring all of our parcels go out on time! To say I nailed it would be an understatement. In between parcels I had another lesson. This time it was learning from my mistake – I tried to order some boxes of cigars that statistically don’t sell very well. Chris, the assistant manager, alerted me to this and then showed me how sales reports will be my friend and showed me what actually does sell well and what doesn’t. Before this I had just used my own experience picking the cigars to think if we needed to order more. It was really enlightening to see.

On Thursday, I concentrated on creating an article for the C.Gars cigar library. This time I chose to do one on the Mitchellero Robusto – It’s called Why Mitchellero Robusto Is One of Our Most Popular Cigars. You can read it here. This new style for the cigar library on top of what I’m learning has been tricky but I certainly see why we are doing it. I also opened an incredible delivery! The recently released Punch Nectares No. 50 Regional Edition Ireland 2025 – Cabinet of 50 – Launched 22nd June 2025 in Dublin, the Punch Néctares No. 50 became the first ever Habanos Regional Edition to be produced for the Irish market and the first Habanos to feature “Exclusivo Irlanda”. I carefully checked over the cigars to make sure they haven’t been damaged in transit and put them into stock ready for our aficionados to get their hands on them. Towards the end of the day Josh and I completed the Cuban stock count. Since changing the room so it is alphabetical, it has made it a lot easier.

On Friday, I started my day by picking orders and even doing some packing, and then I went to work making another article for the cigar library. I had more cigars go out of stock of which I organised quickly and then had to send some sales reports off to management.

Overall it has been another great week here in Norfolk, I would like to personally thank Chris for all of the training he has shown me this week. Without him C.Gars wouldn’t run properly!

So long for now.

Oliver.

Hello everyone from the Norfolk warehouse! It has been a truly fascinating week here at the Norfolk Warehouse! A lot has changed for me and our shop sadly doesn’t longer looks like a shop anymore – But onwards and upwards, we will be a fantastic warehouse!

On Monday, we had the usual mountain of online orders! It seemed like lots but as a team we got through them incredibly quickly. I have noticed a lot of people are enjoying our special thank you cigar – The Vegafina 1998 Short Robusto. You can find this at the checkout page. It’s a nice little add on for £12 instead of £21.49! An incredible discount, but you can only purchase this once. After I completed my online orders, I then set to work checking all of our cigars that have gone out of stock and added what we still have online. I’m slowly getting through a long list of cigars that are currently out of stock and seeing if we can get them back – So you may see some of your old favourites make a comeback. Afterwards, I stocked up our Cuban humidor and started placing an order. As many of you know, Cuban stock is very hit and miss, we never truly know what we are going to get in our next delivery. We order what we need but if our fabulous supplier doesn’t have the stock then we have to go without. I spent a lot of time ordering what I felt we needed and luckily we got most of what I wanted. We had quite a few orders for Click and Collect, which I was happy about – We did still have a few that missed the memo about our shop closing but once I explained, they understood and soon ordered online.

On Tuesday, I focused on creating a new article for the C.Gars cigar library. I was about How Much Do Cohiba Cigars Cost in the UK – You can read it by clicking here. Afterwards, I contacted all of the shops to get ready for their shop newsletters. I still get excited to see what they have to offer for their customers. Later on in the day, I was organising sending the last few bits of the shop to other stores for them to get use out of. Again it was another sad moment, but I am loving my new role currently.

On Wednesday, I started my day by picking online orders and then afterwards I sorted through our out of stock list. I am always in contact with my manager and assistant manager as I am new to this sort of role but it seems to be whatever I have asked, I have been correct about. I have been shown how to see how certain cigars perform sales wise and then been able to decide from that if we need to order more. It has been incredibly interesting. Meanwhile the rest of the team have been moving around our pipes. Our pipe room looked beautiful but not suitable for a warehouse and so now we have moved them so they are fully in alphabetical order and easy to pick. In the afternoon, I stocked up our New World humidor and ordered some new stock. We have had a delivery of a very interesting cigar, it’s from a brand that I am unfamiliar with. It’s called Warped Isla Cocodrilo Corona Gordos – The name Isla Cocodrilo translates from Spanish as “Island of the Crocodile” which is a tribute to Cuba, long said to resemble a Crocodile.

Thursday was stock count day. Lisa and I decided to do it a bit different – We completed the Cuban humidor in its entirety and then moved to New World humidor to complete that room. It certainly worked as we completed it by 2.30! Which is incredible! So afterwards, I worked on getting more cigars in stock. I also compiled a list of cigars which wasn’t selling to check that they were online. 

On Friday, I helped out in the packing department! I packed a lot of awkward orders to help the packing team pack the orders that were priorities. Afterwards, I decided to re-arrange my desk. As previously we were a shop, I didn’t have much freedom on my desk but now I can do what I like, so I got a monitor which is high up so I’m not looking down at a laptop screen and moved around some electricals to make my desk nicer. In the afternoon, I started writing a new article – This one is to celebrate the C.Gars top 10 cigars of 2025! I like to do this yearly, but so far this year, I haven’t had the chance to get around to it as I have been learning the new cigar library style.

I hope you have enjoyed this weeks blog.

So long for now.

Oliver.