Rumour or fact?

[El Presidente]

Punch has been removed from the available brands for  Regional Editions 2022 onwards.

Can anyone confirm 

[havanaclub]

Sounds great. More punch punch and DCs and shorts.


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[Bijan]

Not up to date on regionals but didn't they have 6 for "2018"?

[NSXCIGAR]

That would be quite peculiar. Punch has been an ER heavy brand since day one. 

Unless they're moving Punch to Global status...

[Ryan]

I know they were removed for one or two years. Starting in 2019 I believe. I didn't hear that the removal would be permanent. I hope not. There's a plan in this part of the world.

[Tstew75]

Well that would kinda suck

[MrBirdman]

Interested to hear the story behind this, if true...

[Ryan]

53 minutes ago, MrBirdman said:

Interested to hear the story behind this, if true...

I know that a Punch Regional was requested a few years ago. About 2018. Quite a bit of work was done on it, name, size, packaging, pricing etc. No blending or tasting yet of course.  Habanos representative informed the distributor that there would be no Punch regionals anywhere globally for the following year so it was a no go. I've seen the email from the Habanos representative but not much more to say on this for now. I now that the entity that made the request is still hopeful for it to happen in future. I've seen some of the work done on the idea and it would be a very nice thing.

[NSXCIGAR]

12 hours ago, Ryan said:

I know they were removed for one or two years. Starting in 2019 I believe. I didn't hear that the removal would be permanent. I hope not. There's a plan in this part of the world.

No Punch ERs in 13 & 14 so it has happened before. 19 only saw 2 ERs in total released, so I'm not sure how much one can read into that. The leaked list of 20 releases which so far has been pretty accurate has no Punch ERs listed for release. But obviously 18 was extremely Punch-heavy for ERs. Perhaps they just want to keep it from overheating. Fonseca, VR, RG, RA and SLR had zero ERs for 18, 19, and 20 so perhaps they're just moderating a bit. But with at least 10-15 ERs typically released I don't see why they can't keep it balanced on a regular basis. 6 Punch ERs for 18 is a bit much.

I'd say we need to wait for the 21 releases to draw any conclusions.

[MrBirdman]

While I’d never assume that Habanos necessarily has a logical rationale for this, does anyone care to speculate about their reasoning (beyond the possibility of elevating Punch to a global brand)?

[NSXCIGAR]

12 minutes ago, MrBirdman said:

While I’d never assume that Habanos necessarily has a logical rationale for this, does anyone care to speculate about their reasoning (beyond the possibility of elevating Punch to a global brand)?

As I said above, it's happened before with Punch. Only 2 Punch ERs were released between 2011 and 2017. Perhaps it's just a cooling off since there were 6 Punch ERs in 18. But as I also said, IMO, it's not great marketing to completely pull a brand out of the public eye for any reason. If it's overexposure they're worried about how about not approving 6 in one year? There's no need for the feast or famine approach. With 10-15 ERs every year every brand should get at least one and no more than two. 

[MrBirdman]

7 minutes ago, NSXCIGAR said:

IMO, it's not great marketing to completely pull a brand out of the public eye for any reason. If it's overexposure they're worried about how about not approving 6 in one year?

Completely agree. 

[Ryan]

After a discussion I had yesterday and going back over some documentation. Punch, as a brand, were not allowed for Regionals to be produced in 2020.

Punch is back on the list of possibilities for 2022.

[Ryan]

Here is the section from the Habanos Regional Edition document regarding requests from 2019.

"4.       Applications for year 2020 can be requested in the following brands: RAMON ALLONES / QUAI D'ORSAY / CUABA / DIPLOMATICOS / EL REY DEL MUNDO / FONSECA / LA GLORIA CUBANA / SAINT LUIS REY / SAN CRISTOBAL DE LA HABANA / SANCHO PANZA / RAFAEL GONZALEZ."

A conversation with a Habanos corporate director yesterday confirms that Punch is back on the list for 2022.