Photo by Joe Lanane

Beyond its Sixth Street location, Bobalu Cigar Co. also sends cigar rollers throughout the nation.

Business doubles for cigar shop past three years

When Jeff Lipton first opened Bobalu Cigar Co., all he had for business tools was a checkbook, a spiral notebook and a calculator.

Seventeen years later, Lipton has embraced change by becoming active in online sales in addition to maintaining his longtime shop in the historic Sixth Street district. The cigar retail shop and manufacturer now produces 26 lines of cigars, creating a brand so popular that Lipton intends on expanding to a second location—not yet determined but possibly in South Austin—by the end of 2014 after business doubled the past three years.

That expansion should open up more retail space and seating at Bobalu's original location, said Lipton, who credits his company's recent boom in business to his embrace of technology.

"Being in Austin, Texas—the tech center of the world—you better believe we're using technology," he said. "We only get one chance to win over customers, and if they don't like us, then I'm responsible."

So far customers have embraced Bobalu's expanded efforts, including the company's new mobile application. Users can submit their favorite cigar brands or narrow results by five characteristics—strength, color, country of origin, taste and price—to learn which Bobalu cigar might suit them best.

"No one else has anything like it," Lipton said."It's probably one of the reasons we're doing so well because marketing has taken us to the next level."

Expert customers can talk indepth with shop and online representatives, while novice cigar smokers can also get a tutorial without feeling embarrassed or put down, he said. Customers can also try the products on-site because smoke shops are exempt from any city smoking ban.

Bobalu also sells custom-label cigars that can feature the name of companies, birthday recipients or wholesale brands. Lipton also sells plastic-packaged five packs for traveling cigar enthusiasts.

Rolling, rolling, rolling

For the past 12 years, Bobalu Cigar Co. has linked customers to its cigar rollers through a live Internet video feed. All cigars sold by Bobalu are manufactured either at the Sixth Street shop or in the Dominican Republic, Lipton said. He said all cigars have three basic components.

1. Filler—All premium cigars will contain long leaves instead of little pieces or tobacco leaf scraps, Lipton said. Some Bobalu cigar brands include multiple types of premium leaves to help create a specific flavor, he said.

2. Binder—All cigar filler is first wrapped by a binder leaf to help hold the cigar together, Lipton said. Binders typically are made from the same leaves as wrappers, only they have holes or are discolored.

3. Wrapper—The outside leaf helps complete the product and often costs two times as much as the binder leaves, Lipton said. Once a cigar has been wrapped, it is then cut down to size, packaged and distributed to customers.

Beyond Sixth Street

Beyond its Sixth Street location, Bobalu Cigar Co. also sends cigar rollers throughout the nation to more than 200 events per year to roll cigars at weddings, anniversaries, birthday parties and corporate events.

"Any kind of big event you can possibly think of," owner Jeff Lipton said. "There's just not a whole lot of people doing this."

Bobalu Cigar Co., 509 E. Sixth St., 512-469-5877, www.bobalu.com