Cigarette Keeps Smokin' Abroad
Since Cigarette Racing Team was founded more than 40 years ago, the company has commanded a strong following outside the US. That hasn’t changed.
August 9, 2011
Skip Braver, the owner and chief executive officer of Cigarette Racing Team in Opa-Locka, Fla., gazes out the picture window in his office at the busy factory floor below. Even on the Friday leading into the July 4 weekend, the plant is bustling and Braver, who describes himself as “worn out” from multiple trips to Germany and France in the past three months, is pleased. (Read Cigarette Keeps Smoking)
During the recent Mercedes AMG V.I.P. event in Germany and France, the Cigarette AMG 46’ Rider was used for demo rides that were among the event’s most popular activities.
“The Cigarette brand is at least as strong or stronger in Europe as it is here,” say Braver. “No matter who has owned this company, for better or worse, Cigarette has always sold boats overseas. In good times and bad times, we’ve sold boats overseas. That’s why we have a completely separate international division.”
At present, the company’s strongest dealers are in St. Tropez, France, which also happens to be Cigarette’s longest-established European dealer, and Cologne, Germany. Thanks to Cigarette’s co-branding and marketing efforts with Mercedes AMG—the collaboration led to the co-release of the Mercedes AMG SLS automobile and Cigarette AMG 46’ Rider performance boat almost a year and a half ago—the German dealer has become even more crucial for the dealer.
That relationship led Cigarette to display, for the first time in company history, at the Dusseldorf Boat Show this year. (Read Cigarette Displays at Dusseldorf on the Boats.com Blog.) What’s more, the Cigarette display was in Hall No. 6 with the yachts, a first not just for Cigarette but for any high-performance boat company, period.
Most recently, Cigarette played a significant role in the opening of the Mercedes AMG “Owners Lounge,” an event during which 40 of AMG’s V.I.P. customers were flown to Germany for plant tours and then flown—by private jet—to the Le Castellet Formula One racetrack in Southern France. The event included “hot laps” on the racetrack in various Mercedes AMG automobiles, and the aquatic version of the same in the Cigarette AMG 46’ Rider with Cigarette’s Bud Lorow behind the wheel.
Prior to that event, the Cigarette AMG 46’ Rider served as the V.I.P. boat for the 2011 Cannes International Film Festival.
Without question, Cigarette’s overseas marketing efforts have been huge in 2011. And that makes sense, given that as much as 50 percent of the company’s business can come from overseas markets in what Braver describes as a good year.
“It really does depend on the year and, of course, the economy,” says Braver. “Certainly, France and Italy are very good countries for us. But we also sell boats in Turkey. We have a Turkish dealer.
“We don’t allow brokers to sell Cigarettes anywhere,” he continued. “You have to be a dealer. You have to have an investment in our product. You have to understand Cigarettes before you can sell them.”
Braver reemphasizes the role the economy of any given nation plays in Cigarette performance-boat sales in that country.
“It’s very tied to economic conditions,” he says. “We’ve sold a bunch of boats in Greece. Do you think we’re selling any there now? We’ve sold boats in Egypt. With all that’s going on there now—same thing.”
Cigarette’s strongest-selling models overseas—and that includes Japan and South America—are the 39’ Top Gun Unlimited, the 42’ Tiger and the 50’ Marauder. (Read Cigarette 50 Marauder: Rebirth of a Beauty ) The 50-footer in particular has done well in the European market. The majority of them actually are in Europe. Given the high price of fuel throughout Europe and that most 50’ Marauders have triple engines, that seems surprising.
“The 50 is the ultimate Cigarette, and a lot of people there want to own the ultimate Cigarette,” says Braver. “As I said, the brand is at least as strong or stronger in Europe.
“People in Europe use their boats very differently than we use ours in the United States,” he continues. “If you live in Florida, you can go to the Keys all day, or several days. If you live in the Northeast, there are plenty of places to go for long trips. But for the most part, the trips in Europe are shorter—people don’t go as far. We do have one gentleman who uses his boat to commute from St. Tropez to Monaco during the summer.”
Braver pauses, then laughs.
“You know why?” he asks. “It’s faster than the tiny road between them. That drive, and I think it’s only something like eight miles, could take you two hours.”
In a part of the world where fuel can be 1.33 Euros per litre—think $11 a gallon and you’ll be close—a Cigarette seems an unlikely commuter vehicle. But then, as Braver says before he returns to his desk to take call from Marcel, his dealer in France, “Cigarette has always done well in Europe.”
Matt Trulio is the editor at large for Powerboat magazine. He has written for the magazine since 1994. Trulio’s daily blog can be found on speedonthewater.com, a site he created and maintains, which is the high-performance arm of the BoaterMouth group.
