GQ Folds.

[MisterE]

"When you see your neighbor's beard wet ... put yours to rmojar"

Spanish proverb

a shame the new requirements, and now global with tobacco, to do no doubt cellar

very accurate spanish quote from don quixote. "when you see your neighbor's beard shave"... indeed it is happening. it begins with the regulations in usa and the rest of the world assume a "monkey see monkey do" scenario.  unfortunenatley for europe..."a remojar las barbas" while shaving usa smokers(and now uk).

When you see yout neighbor getting his beard shaved, you better start soaking yours. In other words, you may be next.

I dont know any of the GQ blends, but l'm saddened that I (most likely) won't get the chance.

 

[JimInks]

I've been talking to Glynn and he's doing his best in a difficult situation. He'll keep his web-site open for a couple of months while he does his best to sell what he currently has. Below is a cut-and-paste job of various comments of his from his Facebook page:

[They now] require manufacturers to inform Member States before placing new or modified products on the
market and notify a range of product information concerning composition, emissions and sales/
marketing data.

The main reason we are dealing with all this BS. Smuggled and black market tobacco. The new packaging rules will make all tobacco tracked back to manufacturer and retailer. Again to clamp down on smuggling.

The current government has ushered this in and even increased tobacco tax above the already in place escalator. They will never ban it, as it's a cash cow for them £10bn a year in tobacco duty (10% cost if health service). The more people quit, the more they up the taxes.

Pipe tobacco & cigars ended up exempt of full plain packaging by falling back to the EU base level. With the support of Ireland, Finland, Sweden & France we have imposed stricter rules on all EU states.

"Sadly it's not only GQ Blends which are going, GQ Tobaccos is closing down all together. Between the ban on cross border sales with the EU, slowdown experienced after the referendum, increased buying prices, implementation of digital age verification (which I have not done, due to costs) and losing GQ Blends is too much for my small business to take in a 10 week period.

I could carry on in a smaller capacity by cutting my range in half, but this would result in losing all the unique & unusual blends I carry. Then put my prices up to allow me to comply with the new age checks (around £3 per transaction) and that's all before the FDA rules kick in and I lose even more of my customers/trade.

So while I am the first to fall with this last batch of regulation (might be EU level, but the UK was the biggest cheerleader and added on a lot more UK Regs on top after not getting what we wanted from EU Regs), I don't think I will be the last.

Sadly I and others in the trade see the next step as banning mail-order/online sales. France, Spain & Belgium have done so already and the ground work is being done by anti smoking groups and TS. A few shops have already been caught by Trading Standards stings (getting underage kids to buy baccy online using pre paid MasterCard).

Needless to say the futures grim and sadly I don't think I will be around when it happens.

Those of you who are my customers and friends, I thank you for your custom & support over the years. GQ Tobaccos will still be around for a few months as I have a lot of stock to sell off, but after September I won't have a warehouse/office or staff.

Thank you all ".

 

[Stick]

The dawn of a new era in the story of pipe smoking in Blighty.

One can't help wondering what difference Brexit will make in a couple of years when the UK won't be expected to comply with Euro regulations. Maybe Glynn and others would see this as a new opportunity? Or will the UK have to maintain the regs that have just been imposed? Time will tell. Either way, it's tremendously sad to see a chap like Glynn throw in the towel.

 

[alandadp]

Don't think Brexit will make any difference Stick.
As Glynn said "the UK was the biggest cheerleader and added on a lot more UK Regs on top after not getting what we wanted from EU Regs"
I for one am presently developing an aggressive tobacco acquisiton plan before they shut down my online options and try to force me to buy all my tobacco from B&Ms (fine establishments I'm sure but bloody expensive).
We may not have the FDA over here but I'm not sure we're any better off :twisted:

Adam