Co-founder of Cigar Sense Inc. and Founder of CST Consulting
Franca Comparetto, co-founder of Cigar Sense Inc. and tobacco veteran Claudio Sgroi, Master Blender and founder of CST Consulting, announced a collaboration to provide a unique service that will allow manufacturers to optimize their resources for the launch of new successful or better performing blends.
The innovative service consists of a powerful synergy between Cigar Sense’s ability to analyse how consumers will appreciate a given cigar in a specific geographic region, which has helped cigar companies confidently fast-track successful go-to-market strategies, and Claudio Sgroi’s enormous knowledge in tobacco and blending, which has been vital for the production of numerous memorable blends (e.g. Tierra Volcan, Liga Maestro, Casa Favilli, Cosecha “Vintage” Line and Cinque Terre among others), and will provide the technical support related to tobacco.
“I am very excited by our partnership with Claudio, as his tremendous field knowledge in tobacco and blending complements our rigorous analytical method extremely well. We can’t wait to transfer the benefits of these combined skill sets to cigar companies, especially as today more consumers are increasingly selective in their buying decisions”, said Franca Comparetto.
“Franca built something truly unique that can be integrated in the blending room of every cigar factory. I was shocked when I saw for the first time the amount of data that Cigar Sense collected and now can be used to create target blends based on smokers’ preferences. I’m honoured to be part of this project that, in my opinion is a great tool for the new generation of blends”, said Claudio Sgroi.
The extensive databases of cigar profiles on one hand, and detailed consumer preferences on the other, will be the starting point for the analyses of consumer response, of what is working and of predictions of what will work best. This collaboration offers a revolutionary and agile way to design blends and rapidly test and evolve them, which is currently a highly risky and costly process for cigar companies. Combining tobacco expertise with sensory and data expertise, while continuing to ensure products’ differentiation, will allow a unique depth of understanding how consumers are likely to respond to blends.
“We’re delighted by the evidence that our predictive analytics are a reliable data-driven resource to aid business decisions. We’ve always believed that causality is key to predicting consumer responses accurately and look forward to working with Claudio to make even more actionable consumer insights available to the industry”, said David Wells, co-founder and CTO of Cigar Sense.
About Cigar Sense Inc.:
Cigar Sense Inc. is an online advisory service launched in 2015 to help premium cigar lovers find the best cigars that suit their unique tastes. Following members’ demand, Cigar Sense expanded their activities to offer data and science-based cigar tasting education. Currently the company counts members in over 80 countries and has routinely achieved 90%+ satisfaction from members on the personalized matching of cigars to their unique personal profiles. Encouraged by such accurate performance, Cigar Sense launched its innovative services for marketers to help them understand how and where they can best connect with their potential end customers based on the latter’s preferences. By integrating sensory, consumer and competitive data, Cigar Sense has been able to produce several case studies on the success of their business intelligence services.
About Claudio Sgroi:
Claudio Sgroi is a renowned Master Blender with twenty years of experience in the tobacco sector and cigar manufacturing. He began his career in 2001 in the Dominican Republic, alongside Hendrik Kelner, Davidoff’s Master Blender. He’s had increasingly important assignments in Dominican Republic, Switzerland, Italy, Nicaragua, and the United States, where he acquired a comprehensive knowledge of the industry and processes, including agronomic processes, blending, production of cigars, marketing, and international sales. In 2011 he joined Mombacho Cigars as a Consultant where he designed and implemented new vitolas, successful blends, an effective quality assurance system, as well as complete re-dimensioning of the warehousing and logistics operations. He created a distribution and sales network that covered more than twelve countries and developed productive bonds with the best tobacco growers in Nicaragua. He led the renovation of Casa Favilli, a historical monument in Granada that today serves as the Mombacho cigar factory. In April 2021 he founded CST Consulting, a tobacco industry consulting company and, in January 2020, he was named President of the Nicaragua Tobacco Chamber (CNT).
