I talked to somebody from Weston, Florida. It is a very nice, secluded town, which just recently became it's own city. Houses range from $100K to in excess of $12MM. There are nice country clubs and golf courses in the area. Many celebrities live there, including Dan Marino...which probably explains why he is a major shareholder in this company. The Havana Republic store is located in a shopping center, next to an Italian Restaurant, and everyday stores such as Publix. My friend has been to Havana Republic twice on Fridays. Both of those times, the store was relatively empty, even thought they were giving out free wine and cheese. This is probably because, she claims to see no Havana Republic advertising...even though she is fully aware of what's going on in the town. Weston, Florida has residents of a younger age...most around 40. My friend suggests that Havana Republic should target itself as being more "hip", and they would get better business. Why not have their Dan Marino in some local TV commercials?
I then talked to another lady from Fort Lauderdale. She visits the Las Olas Riverfront all the time. Las Olas Riverfront is basically a growing area with many shops on each street. She never went to Havana Republic, but passes it frequently. She described it as being a very fancy, classy place. However, she usually only sees a couple of people inside at a time.
I felt very happy after discussing Havana Republic with these two people. This is because Havana Republic seems to be in great locations....and is making good revenues (apparently ahead of expectations), without working near it's full capacity. So if Havana Republic comes out with some kind of marketing campaign, there will a lot of room for sales to climb.
Havana Republic is scheduled to be opening their 3rd store soon, to be located at Sunset Place Mall, in South Miami. I talked to a guy from the area. And though he was never down there....he said that he heard it was a very nice area, and should be open soon. He did however explain that there will be a problem with parking. Under further investigation I found out that they are expecting 65,000 people there every day on weekends. The parking lot only holds 18,000...so they are supposedly setting up a trolley, so that people can take metro rail to the mall.
I talked to Steve Schatzman a few weeks ago. At the time, he said that he has yet to make plans with their new PR firm. So maybe if you people called up Pinnacle now, they would offer more information about the company.
He also thought that they would soon reach an agreement with Banana Republic. This would let us finally come out with our own brand of cigars. I am not sure if a settlement has been reached yet, as he predicted.
Schatzman doesn't seem to believe in the Internet....which is why Havana Republic never set up an online store. I am prepared to convince him otherwise. To the best of my knowledge, there is really no big leader as far as Internet Cigar Stores are concerned. If Havana Republic makes an attempt to become that leader, it will be a fast, cheap, and easy way to expand worldwide...and in my opinion, the stock price would increase a lot to the upside. And of course...that would help get them the cash to expand the actual Havana Republic Shops/Lounges nationwide. Steve should spend some cash on a top level domain name like cigars.com or something. Wall Street brokers have been known to love cigars. Think about how favorable this company would be treated by the investment community.
With HVAR currently trading at $0.035...way under book value, most people I talk to feel that you do not have to be very hesitant, when buying shares at this level. Tax selling is probably what got us down here, and I feel that people will now start to accumulate. Pinnacle Group should get us some ads in popular investment magazines and newspapers....discussing the company's true potential. In the past when HVAR was doing this, it was a $3 stock. HVAR may be a takeover target. I have been reading rumors that we may be acquired, on other Internet message boards. Whatever the case is...I am still around, and looking forward to the future!
Jon |
