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Patrick Obanor is the CEO of Royal Oak Cigar Co. and the curator of LaRoc Premium Blend Cigars, a Nigerian Cigar brand competing on the global cigar market.
Obanor resides in Lagos State, Nigeria with his wife Mrs Tuoyo Obanor and two sons. In 2018, he founded his Cigar company which became fully operational in 2019 while working in the tech sector of the corporate world. Obanor is a lifestyle connoisseur who loves his business and his toys. His dynamic taste in cars is an interesting one having moved on from the Mercedes Benz to the Rolls-Royce and the BMW and eventually, found his way back to his first love – the MB.
He is a huge soccer and basketball head who would have been a professional athlete if his father had not insisted that he focus on his education. Heavily intrigued by new technology and innovations, he spends his free time watching television and carrying out researches on the subject. Interestingly, Obanor does not believe in life philosophies and has none; however, he is driven by his fear of failure and that keeps him going through life.
In this virtual chat, he talks about the Business of Cigar, Cigar Culture, Self-Awareness as Man and Entrepreneurship.
It is 7:00 pm and I send him an Instant Message. After initial pleasantries, I ask if he is ready to begin as agreed. I remind him that for his responses, I preferred voice notes to texts because I wanted him to freely express himself. I also wanted to read the sentiments behind his responses to get more insight into his personality; texts would certainly not convey that, would be limiting and I secretly hoped he would opt for my preference.
He is reluctant, I suspect because he responds to my introductory question with a long text. “Must be an assertive man”, I say to myself. “And, this is going to be a long a** interview”, I cuss out loud to myself.
We proceed and I type my second question asking about his cigar which is grown in Dominican Republic and Handmade in Nigeria. Voila! His response comes in not one voice note but more. I set my phone and laptop aside and do the dance. “Afu n’anya ekwe! (loosely translated: seeing is believing)”, I mutter to myself in my native language, as I realize that the reasons for my preference are dawning on him.
In his silky, smooth, baritone voice; he confidently responded, “We grow our tobacco in the Dominican Republic and we have them shipped to Lagos where we hand-make them to cigars. The reason we do that is this: during the initial stage when we were trying to set up the cigar company, we were at the research phase and we tried to see if we could grow our tobacco locally and we had some research done and a test sample was grown here. We had a farm close to the B.A.T. farm in Oyo state where we tried to grow our tobacco but unfortunately, the quality of tobacco leaves we got from that testing process did not meet the standard for us to make good quality cigars that could represent what we wanted the brand to look like and also be able to stand up to other foreign international brands.
“That is the idea – for us to be a Made in Nigeria cigar, we needed to make sure that the quality of cigar that we are able to produce is at par with the international standard… We resolved that it was best for us to grow in the DR and see if could bring them into Nigeria. Again, we had two options: Do we bring the tobacco leaves grown in DR into Nigeria and hand-make them? Or, do we manufacture them in DR into full Cigar and bring them into Nigeria?
“In trying to make the right decisions, we had to put the numbers together to see if it made economic sense. Fortunately for us, which was also a key process [factor] in making this decision, the duty for importing the raw materials, that is the tobacco leaves, was 10% but the duty for importing full cigars was 70% so it made more economic sense to bring in the tobacco leaves and manufacture the cigars here in Nigeria.”
What next for this, he tells me, was that owing to the fact that Nigeria does not have a heavy cigar culture, he had to import rollers from the DR and hand make the cigars in Nigeria. During the process, there were also some technology transfers in terms of training the locals on how to roll cigars.
Fortunately, he had the current government policy of Visa on Arrival on his side as it was convenient for his partners to arrive in Nigeria, obtain Visas on Arrival, import the rollers and train the locals on rolling the cigars. After the inventories, they would return to the DR until it was time to manufacture the next batch of products.
His reason for this approach was “…one simple reason. We had it in the back of our minds that, being a Made in Nigeria Cigar, it was going to be bad to try to compete with international brands in the Nigerian market”. He explained that “ We did not want to hold back in terms of trying to achieve the best quality cigar, so we pulled out every single stop to make sure that the best cigars in terms of quality were what we were going to achieve so that we could compete with international brands”.
He tells me that it was tough starting out because Nigeria was not known to make cigars per se and in terms of Africa, when he got into the market, the continent had only about 4 players in the cigar business and the number had over time, increased to 5 cigar manufacturing companies in Africa.
We talk about what growth has looked like for his business since inception. He describes the almost 2-year-long journey as challenging yet beautiful. “It has been challenging but at the same time, it has been lovely. It was interesting trying to convince people to try our cigars because ‘it is a Made-in-Nigeria Cigar’. We had a Nigerian cigar culture where people actually had no clue about cigars. They like cigars, they can afford it but they have no clue about it.”
Obanor starts to give me an insight into the categories of smokers one would find in Nigeria and I am intrigued,
We have different kinds of smokers, as far as I am concerned, when it comes to Nigerian smokers. We have those who claim to know about cigars but actually do not know about cigars. We have those who can afford it and just do not care about it, they just smoke it because they can afford it.
Realizing this, he tells me, he had to navigate the dynamics of this existing culture. This necessitated the expansion of his company from being a cigar manufacturing company to a cigar lifestyle company where he assumed thought leadership and began to educate the community on the intricacies of the cigar.
“It is quite a bit of culture when it comes to cigars…Most people don’t know what goes into the making of a cigar. Most people don’t know what a good cigar is and what a bad cigar is. Most people don’t know the profile of cigars in terms of the ring gauge, the sizing, the taste notes of different cigars. That formed part of the lifestyle aspect of the Royal Oak Cigar”. He explains that he went on to create the La Roc Signature Experience – the private cigar pop-up party where connoisseurs and enthusiasts are exposed to an immersive experience of cigars including “tasting and pairing with different libations”.
He goes on to express his deep passion for his business, crediting it to the potentials he saw ahead of that. “It is something that I am passionate about because the opportunities are there. The potentials are there”.
We dig deep into how he came up with the idea of starting the business in the country and he says, “Well, I have been smoking cigars for the past fifteen years so it is a culture I have been into and loved. My biggest challenge was the fact that it was difficult for me to get good quality cigars in the country,
80% of cigars in this country are fakes. That is basic. It became difficult for me to get good cigars in the country.
“I had people in the same category as myself”, explaining that he was not the only one who encountered the same challenge. “You only get to buy good cigars on your way back into the country and then you smoke them. Once you have exhausted, you find someone coming into the country and ask them to help you get more. Other than those two avenues, you are stuck. For you to get good quality cigars, it is rare and when you do find them, you don’t get that variety. You are restricted in terms of choice. There are some cigars I feel like smoking at some particular time because of the mood I am in at the time. I might go to a cigar shop and I might not get that cigar.
“So you see what I am saying, because of the fact that quality cigars were very limited, you are restricted to what is available. That was how it all started”, he narrates.
We begin to talk about a specific incident that spurred his decision to begin Cigar manufacturing.
He narrates how he had gone to Cancún, Mexico with his family in 2018 to spend the spring break. He opted for Mexico because, instead of spending their 10-day break in Lagos, he wanted them to be in Mexico, closer to Houston where he could easily dash in and out since it was only a 3-hour flight distance.
However, the hotel they stayed in at the time had a cigar convention similar to the type usually hosted in Las Vegas. He had “come downstairs to the bar. It was an open event and so I walked in. I just fell in love with the ambience because all the majors were there in terms of the ‘Who is Whos,’ it was like the Oscars for Cigar Making. All the major international brands were there, those who made accessories, those who made cigars, celebrities, everybody was there. You know when you go to a convention, you get to move from stand to stand and ask questions; I was moving around and having conversations with people and luckily for me, the company I ended up going into a partnership with, in terms of leasing part of their farm to grow my tobacco in Dominican Republic, that was how we met.
“So, from conversations to conversations, they saw the interest I had and I also expressed my interest in creating my own label to serve my own local market. They were very helpful in terms of giving me all the push and advice and they invited me over to come have a tour of their farm.
“As soon as I was done with spring break, I dropped my family back in Houston and off to Dominican Republic; I went to visit the farm. That’s how the Royal Oak Cigar started. In 2018, the whole idea was conceived, we became operational in 2019 and here we are right now”.
On the growth of the business so far, he says, “Now, we are doing exports to other African countries. We export to Ghana, Mozambique, Angola, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Benin Republic and others. It has been fun so far, It has been challenging”.
I talk to him about self-awareness as a man and lessons he has learned over time. One major life lesson he has learned which has shaped him as a wholesome man, he tells me, is to, “Always be careful of your every action as there’s always a compelling consequence”.
I go on to tell him that for a man of his prominence and owing to the nature of the business, it is expected that he is constantly exposed to high-energy environments; one wonders how he manages unsolicited pressure and attention to ensure he remains faithful to his partner and accountable to his family. He responds to this by saying, “I think it’s more about understanding that everything out there is temporary but home is permanent.”
On financial independence, he tells me that the way to attain this is by creating multiple streams of income. I pick his brain on investments and ask what his top three most viable areas to invest are. His picks are, “Real estate, mutual funds and bonds”.
I delve into bitter financial pills to swallow and ask him about the habits people indulge in that lead to loss of financial freedom.
He gives me an answer that does not quite satisfy me because it scratches the surface. I probe further and push him for a deeper and more realistic response that our readers could learn from and he confesses, “The truth is that I haven’t had a personal experience on that so it is difficult for me to really express an opinion. Plus, for those who have experienced it, it is also improper for me to comment from their point of view since I have not been exposed to whatever situation that has been presented to them.
“I really don’t comment on why people experience such roller-coasters because what I feel might be reckless to me might not be to the next chap and vice versa”. He continues, “So, until you are in their state of mind at that stage or point, I feel I don’t have the moral rights to express an opinion or comment”, bringing us back to his original response to me “I think it’s more about how you prioritize your needs and wants. It is more about financial discipline”.
This time, I accept his response.
We begin to discuss cultivation of tobacco. “When it comes to cigars, tobacco cultivation and manufacture used to be strictly cuba but that has all changed as now, tobacco cultivation and cigar manufacture has moved far and beyond cuba to Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Honduras, Brazil, San Andreas – Mexico”, he says.
I ask what city grows the finest tobacco and he replies, “Now, Dominican Republic and Nicaragua rank top in good soil for cultivating good quality tobacco for making fine cigars.”
I inquire into the limitations he encounters in terms of foreign trade and he elucidates, “I would say logistics because it’s a challenge for me to ship an order out of Nigeria to other African countries due to in-country restrictions of shipping tobacco by courier. So, we have had to use land transit to Ghana and then ship to other African countries when we receive such orders”.
“Crazy!”, he exclaims.
“I just hope and pray. There is more I would have loved to do but there are a lot of limitations when it comes to the in-country policy as regards to tobacco so it difficult for us to want to really push and have a huge footprint into the Nigerian market hence it is more convenient for us to continue to focus on the international market and then also, have many footprints in the Nigerian market. We are hoping that overtime, when the government decides to relax its policies on cigars, tobacco in general, then we could come out with a heavy footprint [in Nigeria] but for now, it is not where we want to be,but there is nothing we can do so we are just comfortable with the Nigerian market’, he hints at the government’s legal policies that also keeps a check on his business.
On health concerns of cigar smokers and enthusiasts, he comments, “I think everything in life has its own compelling risks associated with it. To me, it’s all about moderation. Good thing about cigars is you don’t inhale unlike cigarettes or pipes. With cigars, you simply draw, swirl to experience the different profiles and you puff it out.”
Cigars are generally more expensive than cigarettes and he explains that this is due to the delicate processes that go into its production of the former, in addition to the quality of tobacco used.
Why do people generally prefer cigars to cigarettes? He tells me in the simplest of terms that this is true because it represents taste, class and style.
“How then, does one really spot a ‘great cigar’?” I ask.
“When it comes to spotting a “great cigar”, I’d say it is multilayered. It goes beyond just a physical examination but also includes the experience which is the smoking, the burn rate and the flavor.
“Look for cigars with a luster or oily sheen which indicates that they are high quality.
“On the physical examination, which is the look and feel, a good quality cigar should not have any weak spots – solid visible veins from the tobacco leaves used as wrappers – instead it should be smooth, flawless without gaps or breaks.
“A good cigar should have a lustrous shin of tobacco oil evenly, which is an indication that it has been well preserved in proper condition and aged.
“Also look out for how well-filled with tobacco the cigar is.
“A cigar consists of 3 layers:
“Fillers (tobacco leaves bunched together to form the inner core, strength and structure of a cigar),
“Binder (refers to the tobacco leaf used to bind or hold together the fillers bunched together)
“Wrapper (Tobacco leaf usually of best shade and color used to wrap and give the cigar its beauty in
appearance).
“A good quality cigar should be well filled with tobacco referred here as fillers and well bunched together and binded by binders (binders are tobacco leaves used in binding fillers together to make a great bunch before being wrapped with wrappers which gives the cigar the exterior beauty, look and feel).
“So, a well filled cigar is responsible for the consistent firm feel you should notice throughout and to spot this firmness you usually place the cigar between your index finger and your thumb, with a light pressure roll in between your fingers while placing it close to your ear.
“This allows you to check for sounds of internal cracks or inconsistencies in the strength of the bunch .
“A good cigar should have a consistency in color shade of wrappers used.
“On the smoke experience, the burn rate is also key. A great cigar will always have a good burn rate this way it allows you enjoy the best of the cigar as it delivers the different flavors.
“A great cigar burns slowly and evenly which is a result of the fillers used and how its been bunched together to allow consistent air passage through, “ he enlightens me.
He explains that the Royal Oak Cigar is unique and this is because, “Beyond being a premium blend cigar, our tobacco leaves are carefully aged and cigars curated using age-old cuban rolling techniques.”
Beyond selling products to a target market, it is always important for businesses to support their communities and impact positively on the culture. I ask him if this is something he agrees with and he responds in the affirmative, adding that “We partner with White December foundation every holiday for our outreach to give back. Every December, White December foundation usually carries out balloting for community-based outreach where they nominate a community and engage them based on their needs.
Usually, it centres on empowering widows and women in general. Once this process is completed, we then step in. We make it a point of duty to support these women, widows and kids from less privileged backgrounds in celebrating the holiday season. This, we do yearly through the distribution of groceries and cash.
“In addition to this, we also support with educational materials and equipment for learning while offering counselling and mentoring when we carry out visitations”.
I ask about the direct impact of his cigar business on the community and he tells me he considers his business a channel for promoting the culture and heritage of his people. Obanor hails from Benin, Edo state. “Which is why I adopted this idea of using our cigars to sell our culture and heritage one box of cigar at a time.
“So, inside every box we export, we usually include a piece of literature in the form of photographs with notes depicting and celebrating our rich and diverse culture and heritage.
This way when you purchase a box of our cigar it gives you an insight into my background and where I come from; the diversities in rich cultural heritage from where this cigar is hand-made”.
We talk about his life goal and he tells me it is to, “Create a product that positively impacts the world”.
I ask Obanor, “What is your personal mantra ?” and he responds quietly, “Honesty”. I ask about his life philosophies and he tells me, “I don’t really believe in or have one.”
What a man!
