Los Angeles, CA, March 28, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — El Septimo has hired seasoned Sales Executive, Franklin Kleckner, to support its continuous sales growth and expansion throughout US retail centers. Franklin Kleckner will be joining El Septimo beginning on April 3, 2023 as Sales Manager of the Eastern Seaboard. His territories will include South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, D.C., West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York.
Franklin has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Marketing from George Mason University in Virginia and has spent the past 6 years working for Rocky Patel Cigars as a Head Trainer and Regional Sales Manager in Virginia and the Carolinas.
Zaya Younan, CEO of El Septimo Cigars, says, “We continue to grow globally by taking market share from all leading cigar companies, and in preparation for this continuous growth, we need to expand our direct sales force team to better service our retailers”
FranklinKleckner adds, “I’m thrilled to be joining El Septimo, a company that is reinventing the industry and producing cigars that everyone is talking about. It is very difficult to smoke any other cigar once you’ve had an El Septimo. Not only are their cigars and accessories world-class, but their growth is something that I have never seen before. After experiencing the unique layers of complexity and refinement that El Septimo cigars have to offer, I knew I had to go on this journey with El Septimo and I’m excited to share this experience with enthusiasts across the Eastern Seaboard.”
Younan finishes, “We welcome Franklin Kleckner to our team and are looking forward to his contributions towards this luxury brand of cigars and accessories. We will be announcing other hires, as we believe 2023 will be our biggest growth year yet.”
El Septimo is continuing to look for industry veterans experienced in the areas of sales, customer service, marketing, and production management.
Phillips & King Contact:
Rachel McKnett
rachelmcknett@phillipsandking.com
The Return of Rocky Patel Olde World Reserve
Phillips & King now exclusively distributing the much-sought-after cigar in Corojo and Maduro.
(October 2022) Phillips & King is giving a hero’s welcome to Rocky Patel Olde World Reserve. This highly
desired cigar is returning to the premium cigar category 10 years after its initial release, and is now
being exclusively distributed by Phillips & King as of late September 2022. Known in the industry for
their exceptional product selection and service, Phillips & King is pleased to add this customer-favorite,
whose bold blend helped put Rocky Patel on the map when it was first launched.
“Rocky Patel’s Olde World Reserve is an iconic
cigar that every premium tobacconist should
have in stock,” says Jason Carignan, President of
Phillips & King. “And the royal treatment from
Phillips & King is ideal for its grand re-entry to
the market. We are excited to partner with the
great minds and industry veterans at Rocky
Patel, and are even more excited to get these
cigars into the hands of our retail customers.
The smokes are beautifully nuanced, and truly
incomparable. We see great success ahead for
both of our brands.”
One of Rocky Patel’s best-selling cigars to date, the Olde World Reserve offers a medium-to-full-bodied
profile, with Nicaraguan binders and fillers, and two wrappers that bring their distinct regional flavors to
the overall experience:
The Maduro. Richly dark in color, this cigar is
hand-rolled at Rocky Patel’s TaviCusa Factory in
Esteli, Nicaragua, and delivers flavors of
volcanic earthiness, natural tobacco sweetness,
and black pepper with a salted caramel finish. It
is available in the following sizes: Robusto, Sixty,
Toro
The Corojo. Hand-rolled at the Paraiso Factory
in Danli, Honduras, this smooth cigar offers
notes of toasty wood and graham cracker
complemented by the natural sweetness of the
Corojo leaf. It is available in the following sizes:
Robusto, Sixty, Toro
With an extensive network of distribution and tax compliance capabilities, Phillips & King will be
shipping the Rocky Patel Olde World Reserve cigars to retailers in all 50 states, the U.S. Virgin Islands,
Guam, Puerto Rico, and globally to US military bases. For more information or to place an order to carry
Rocky Patel Olde World Reserve, please visit phillipsandking.com or call 800-532-4427.
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About Phillips & King
Phillips & King, a subsidiary of Kretek International, Inc., is a leading distributor of specialty tobacco,
alternative smoking products, and accessories in the United States. Since 1906, the company has built a
strong reputation by focusing on independent and small chain convenience, tobacco, and liquor
retailers. Phillips & King offers an unparalleled catalog of products and ships to all 50 states, the US
Virgin Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico, and globally to US military bases, providing hassle-free tobacco tax
compliance, easy web-ordering and a team of knowledgeable customer service experts. For more
information, please visit phillipsandking.com.
CFPB Launches Effort to Spur New Opportunities for Homeowners in the Mortgage Market
Agency seeks information on refinances, mortgage products to promote competition and support household financial stability
Washington, D.C. —The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is asking for public input on ways to spur new mortgage products that help households. The CFPB seeks insights on ways to improve mortgage refinances for homeowners who would benefit from refinancing, especially for borrowers with smaller loan balances. The agency also seeks public input on ways to support automatic short-term and long-term loss mitigation assistance for homeowners who experience financial disruptions. The CFPB will use this information as it considers steps to support household financial stability and address refinance market gaps. Today’s initiative is part of a broader CFPB effort to promote competition and innovation in consumer finance markets.
“The mortgage market has not provided products that allow all households to save money by refinancing at a lower interest rate,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. “We are eager for input on ways that borrowers taking out loans today can refinance to lower rates in the future.”
Mortgage payments are often a household’s single largest expenditure, so the terms of a mortgage greatly impact a household’s financial stability. When interest rates decline, many borrowers benefit from the lower rates by refinancing their loans. For example, researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston found that total consumer savings from mortgage refinancing from January 2020 to October 2020, during the refinancing boom, was $5.3 billion annually. The typical consumer saved nearly $300 a month ($279) from refinancing during that period. The savings from refinancing a mortgage at a lower rate can translate into increased wealth and equity for borrowers. However, mortgage refinancing can be harder to access for borrowers with smaller loan balances. Black and Hispanic borrowers, who on average have smaller loans, have not participated in recent refinance booms at the same rate as white borrowers.
Refinancing volume has dropped dramatically, down almost 70% from last year, as interest rates have risen. New streamlined and automatic refinancing mortgage products could make sure that those buying a home now, or refinancing to cover other needs, are able to benefit from the next interest rate drop.
Periods of economic turmoil can pose significant challenges for mortgage borrowers. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, millions of borrowers lost jobs and income and were at risk of losing their homes. Forbearance protections, passed by Congress via the CARES Act, allowed millions of homeowners with federally-backed mortgages to temporarily stop their monthly mortgage payments. Many servicers of mortgages that did not qualify for CARES Act protections followed the government’s lead and offered similar protections. Over the course of the pandemic, 8.2 million borrowers entered a forbearance program, and as of July 2022, 93% have exited. Of those who have exited forbearance, only 5% are delinquent or in active foreclosure. The CFPB is interested in the features of these pandemic-related forbearance programs that should be made more generally available to borrowers, and in particular, if there are ways to automate and streamline the offering of long-term loss mitigation assistance.
Specifically, the CFPB is requesting information about:
Targeted and streamlined refinance programs: Targeted and streamlined refinance programs have been used to improve refinancing, typically with lower transaction costs than traditional refinances. Refinance programs can lead to lower monthly payments and interest rates for homeowners who previously would have been unlikely or unable to refinance.
Innovative refinancing products, such asautomatic refinancing: Such products might automatically trigger an offer to refinance or automatically reduce a loan’s interest rate in certain circumstances. This could help homeowners who currently face barriers to refinancing, including those with lower-balance mortgages, access beneficial refinancing.
Automatic forbearance and long-term loss mitigation assistance: Mortgage products with automatic forbearance features may help ensure that homeowners whose incomes or financial situations are affected by events, such as natural disasters, are able to receive timely payment relief that could help them avoid foreclosure and provide increased household financial stability. Additionally, such automatic forbearance features could provide benefits for mortgage servicers and holders as well.
Competitive mortgage markets promote opportunities for wealth creation and promote broader household financial stability. Today’s request for information seeks innovative and timely ideas to address persistent market failures and to help borrowers access beneficial refinancing along with short- and long-term loss mitigation assistance. Public input will help inform future policy initiatives, rulemaking, and other mortgage competition and innovation initiatives.
The request for information announced today is an example of the CFPB’s new approach to promoting competition and new products. As announced in May, rather than providing special regulatory treatment of individual firms, the CFPB will seek to identify stumbling blocks for those seeking to challenge the status quo with new products or services. The Paperwork Reduction Act authorization for the CFPB’s Compliance Assistance Sandbox and No Action Letter Policies expires on September 30, 2022, so the CFPB will no longer be accepting or processing applications submitted through those Policies after that date
Consumers having an issue with a consumer financial product or service can submit a complaint with the CFPB online or by calling (855) 411-CFPB (2372).
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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is a 21st century agency thatimplements and enforces Federal consumer financial law and ensures that markets for consumer financial products are fair, transparent, and competitive. For more information, visit consumerfinance.gov.
CFPB Launches New Effort to Promote Competition and Innovation in Consumer Finance
New Office Will Identify Obstacles for New Market Entrants
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is opening a new office, the Office of Competition and Innovation, as part of a new approach to help spur innovation in financial services by promoting competition and identifying stumbling blocks for new market entrants. The office will replace the Office of Innovation that focused on an application-based process to confer special regulatory treatment on individual companies. The new office will support a broader initiative by the CFPB to analyze obstacles to open markets, better understand how big players are squeezing out smaller players, host incubation events, and, in general, make it easier for people to switch financial providers.
“Competition is one of the best forms of motivation. It can help companies innovate and make their products better, and their customers happier,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. “We will be looking at ways to clear obstacles and pave the path to help people have more options and more easily make choices that are best for their needs.”
The CFPB has a statutory mandate to promote fair, transparent, and competitive markets. Families, honest businesses, and the entire economy benefit when consumer finance markets are fiercely competitive, rather than dominated by a handful of firms. Digital technology is transforming the markets, including how payments, deposits, and lending are provided and who provides them. Big banks, fintech, big tech, incumbents, and small start-ups are all jockeying to be in front. The Office of Competition and Innovation will focus on how to create market conditions where consumers have choices, the best products win, and large incumbents cannot stifle competition by exploiting their network effects or market power.
The new office will support the CFPB’s general effort at increasing competition for the benefit of all consumers. Specifically, the CFPB will:
Give consumers their walking rights to switch providers: Competition is more vibrant when people can switch to a new provider easily, creating pressure on incumbents to maintain high levels of service and giving new entrants an opportunity to win customers. The CFPB will be exploring ways to reduce the barriers to switching accounts and providers.
Research structural problems blocking successes: The new office will be housed in the CFPB’s Research, Markets, and Regulation division, giving it greater access to resources to look at market-structure problems that create obstacles to innovation. For example, this could include greater explorations of the payment networks market or the credit reporting system, both of which are essential to our financial system but have only a few dominant players.
Understand how bigger players can gain advantage over smaller players: Sometimes start-ups simply get runover by bigger players. For example, big companies can easily pitch new products to their large customer bases and stymie outside players who may have more favorable products. Big tech companies, with their huge reaches, are also seeking new ways to join consumer finance markets and may threaten fair competition.
Identify ways to address commonplace obstacles: Innovators may not be getting their products or services to market because of more practical problems like access to capital or talent. Or they may not launch because they don’t have access to the large volumes of digital data stored by the big banks. A future rulemaking by the CFPB under Section 1033 of the Consumer Financial Protection Act will give consumers access to their own data.
Host events to explore barriers to entry and other obstacles: The new office will convene events such as open houses, sprints, hackathons, tabletop exercises, and war games. Entrepreneurs, small business owners, and technology professionals will be able to collaborate, explore obstacles, and share frustrations with government regulators. Results will be shared publicly.
The Office of Competition and Innovation replaces the Office of Innovation, which opened in 2018, and Project Catalyst, launched in 2014. The Office of Innovation’s primary purpose was to process applications for No Action Letters and Sandboxes that applied to an individual company’s specific product offering. After a review of these programs, the agency concludes that the initiatives proved to be ineffective and that some firms participating in these programs made public statements indicating that the Bureau had conferred benefits upon them that the Bureau expressly did not.
The CFPB is also encouraging companies, start-ups, as well as members of the public to file rulemaking petitions to ask for greater clarity on particular rules. This will help level the playing field and foster competition by ensuring any actions the CFPB takes will apply to all companies in the market.
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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is a 21st century agency thatimplements and enforces Federal consumer financial law and ensures that markets for consumer financial products are fair, transparent, and competitive. For more information, visit consumerfinance.gov
Dahot Cigars comes to TPE 2022 Las Vegas from Honduras. They presented their line of 6 cigars all varying from Connecticut, Maduro and Habano. With over 15 years of experience in the industry, Dahot is a brand should be added to your palate. Catrina De Mi Vida, Don Juan Calavera, The Clown, Flor Maya, Marchetti and Flow is their lineup. Visit Dahotcigars.com and check out their entire line and purchase from their website.
Bocock Brothers Cigars returns to Las Vegas TPE 2022 to showcase their World Traveller Collection, Habano, Connecticut and Maduro. This interview is a little different as we decided to speak in Spanish. The cigar talk in Spanish is so beautiful to hear. Bocock Brothers Cigars also have golf gear and cigar accessories. Visit Bocockbrothers.com check out their cigars in depth and shop their terrific golf gear and accessories.
Veritas cigars has been in the industry for 10 years. Their factory in Esteli Nicaragua. Their line includes the 412, Torch, Three Blends, and Leaning House Fine Cigars. Veritas Cigars is involved with several charities visit Veritascigars.com to learn more about their cigars and their story and where you can find their cigars to add to your palate.
Phillips & King Introduces New Brand and Digital Strategy
Phillips & King rolls out a bold new look and announces launch of a digital platform that will modernize the B2B tobacco and related wholesale categories.
(January 2022) Phillips & King International, Inc. is kicking off 2022 with a new brand identity and the announcement of a forthcoming new wholesale e-commerce platform. A distributor of thousands of diverse products since 1906, Phillips & King has a long, successful history serving independent and small chain convenience, tobacco, and liquor retailers across the United States.
Phillips & King is unveiling a new brand identity to mark the beginning of the next chapter in the company’s story. A contemporary refinement of the company’s “shield and knight” badge, the new logo signifies its mission to modernize the business, while paying homage to the equity earned over their 116-year heritage.
Phillips & King has embarked on a complete digital transformation of its business to better serve the evolving needs of its retail customers and brand partners. Over the course of this year, the company will be launching a host of enhancements to its business, including a new web platform expected to launch in early Q2 that will make it easier than ever for stores to discover and stock the products that consumers want most. Phillips & King will also be greatly expanding its product and category assortment to give emerging brands the ability to reach more buyers— and give stores access to the best new products on the market.
“The future of B2B wholesale commerce is both digital and highly-personalized,” says Jason Carignan, President of Phillips & King. “Our new web platform will enable us to more easily connect buyers and sellers across the industry and offer a more expansive array of products and categories- all while improving the personal connection our sales teams have with customers. We believe that retailers should be able to manage their entire business with ease from their mobile device and have access to business intelligence— and expert guidance— that helps drive inventory-buying decisions. This new platform is the first step in our quest to helping stores thrive in the new retail reality.”
To get an extensive first look at the new Phillips & King brand identity, those attending TPE 2022 can visit booth #4081 at the show, happening in Las Vegas, Nevada, January 26 – January 28, 2022. Visit phillipsandking.com for more information and to experience the future of business.
About Phillips & King
Phillips & King, a subsidiary of Kretek International, Inc., is a leading distributor of specialty tobacco, alternative smoking products, and accessories in the United States. Since 1906, the company has built a strong reputation by focusing on independent and small chain convenience, tobacco, and liquor retailers. Phillips & King offers an unparalleled catalog of products and ships to all 50 states, the US Virgin Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico, and globally to US military bases, providing hassle-free tobacco tax compliance, easy web-ordering and a team of knowledgeable customer service experts. For more information, please visit phillipsandking.com.
Kretek International, Inc. Announces Departure of Patrick Hurd, CSO
Moorpark, CA – April 30, 2021 – Kretek International, Inc., a leading American cigar and specialty tobacco manufacturer, importer, wholesaler and distributor announces the departure of long time Chief Sales Officer Patrick Hurd after two decades with the company. Hurd’s exit from the company is expected as of May 31, 2021.
Patrick Hurd originally joined Kretek in November 2000, while launching its Canadian subsidiary, Kretek Canada. Under his leadership, as General Manager, Kretek Canada experienced extensive growth for eleven (11) years before he moved to the United States in June 2011 to launch Kretek International’s Ventura Cigar Company as its General Manager. Hurd was promoted to Vice President Sales in 2013 and to Chief Sales Officer in 2017.
Hurd leaves the company for personal reasons, to rejoin his family who moved back to Toronto, Canada full time in 2019. The current Covid-19 crisis made commuting infeasible, which prompted Hurd’s decision to move back to Canada full-time.
Kretek International’s President, Sean Cassar commented, “Patrick has been a vital member of our executive team and a significant contributor to the growth of our proprietary brands. He will be missed, but as a family business we appreciate the decision he’s made to focus on his family during these unprecedented times.”
Hurd remarked, “Leaving a family business as strong and tightly knit as Kretek is never an easy decision, but my own family is obviously my priority, and that means I need to be back home with them in Canada. I also look forward to seeing my industry peers and customers at TPE 21 in Las Vegas, May 12-14, 2021 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.”
Kretek currently intends to enter into a consulting agreement with Hurd that will become effective upon his departure and has not announced a successor at this time.
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About Kretek International, Inc.
Kretek International, Inc., parent company to DRYFT Sciences, LLC, Phillips & King, Ventura Cigar Company, and Tobacco Media Group (TMG) is a leading American importer, marketer, and distributor of cigars and specialty tobacco products sold by convenience, mass, and national retailers. For over 30 years, Kretek has enjoyed a strong reputation for providing exceptional customer relationships and top-quality goods. The company continues to offer standout brands like Djarum, Cuban Rounds, and Djeep Lighters to distribution channels across the United States and Canada, bringing value, high margins, and growth to retailers and distributors.
