Tweet
i have had the pleasure of ordering from Glynn the owner and fantastic blender of GQ tobacco in the UK
on another board ( yes I know I'm sorry) I have read that he is closing down his business due to the latest round of legislation that are strangling small business, he wrote :
Been a while since I've been on here. So I figured I should pop on and tell you all directly.
Sadly it's not only GQ Blends which are going, GQ Tobaccos is closing down all together. Between the ban on cross boarder sales with the EU, slowdown experienced after the referendum, increased buying prices, implementation of digital age verification (which I have not done, due to costs) and loosing GQ Blends is too much for my small business to take in a 10 week period.
I could carry on in a smaller capacity by cutting my range in half, but this would result in loosing all the unique & unusual blends I carry. Then put my prices up to allow me to comply with the new age checks (around ?3 per transaction) and that's all before the FDA rules kick in and I loose even more of my customers/trade.
So while I am the first to fall with this last batch of regulation (might be EU level, but the UK was the biggest cheerleader and added on a lot more UK Regs on top after not getting what we wanted from EU Regs), I don't think I will be the last.
Sadly I and others in the trade see the next step as banning mail-order/online sales. France, Spain & Belgium have done so already and the ground work is being done by anti smoking groups and TS. A few shops have already been caught by Trading Standards stings (getting underage kids to buy baccy online using pre paid MasterCard).
Needless to say the futures grim and sadly I don't think I will be around when it happens.
Those of you who are my customers and friends, I thank you for your custom & support over the years. GQ Tobaccos will still be around for a few months as I have a lot of stock to sell off, but after September I won't have a warehouse/office or staff.
Thank you all
I don't know if anyone here used glynn regularly for pipe tobacco supplies, if you did he's trading for approx. 2 more months before going out of business. if you had a favourite blend you may want to order quickly
my apologies if this has been posted elsewhere on the board, I had a quick "man glance" and didn't notice anything.
andy
on another board ( yes I know I'm sorry) I have read that he is closing down his business due to the latest round of legislation that are strangling small business, he wrote :
Been a while since I've been on here. So I figured I should pop on and tell you all directly.
Sadly it's not only GQ Blends which are going, GQ Tobaccos is closing down all together. Between the ban on cross boarder sales with the EU, slowdown experienced after the referendum, increased buying prices, implementation of digital age verification (which I have not done, due to costs) and loosing GQ Blends is too much for my small business to take in a 10 week period.
I could carry on in a smaller capacity by cutting my range in half, but this would result in loosing all the unique & unusual blends I carry. Then put my prices up to allow me to comply with the new age checks (around ?3 per transaction) and that's all before the FDA rules kick in and I loose even more of my customers/trade.
So while I am the first to fall with this last batch of regulation (might be EU level, but the UK was the biggest cheerleader and added on a lot more UK Regs on top after not getting what we wanted from EU Regs), I don't think I will be the last.
Sadly I and others in the trade see the next step as banning mail-order/online sales. France, Spain & Belgium have done so already and the ground work is being done by anti smoking groups and TS. A few shops have already been caught by Trading Standards stings (getting underage kids to buy baccy online using pre paid MasterCard).
Needless to say the futures grim and sadly I don't think I will be around when it happens.
Those of you who are my customers and friends, I thank you for your custom & support over the years. GQ Tobaccos will still be around for a few months as I have a lot of stock to sell off, but after September I won't have a warehouse/office or staff.
Thank you all
I don't know if anyone here used glynn regularly for pipe tobacco supplies, if you did he's trading for approx. 2 more months before going out of business. if you had a favourite blend you may want to order quickly
my apologies if this has been posted elsewhere on the board, I had a quick "man glance" and didn't notice anything.
andy
Comment