Newly launched cigar company, Mayflower Cigars, sold out four months’ worth of inventory within 24 hours of its Wednesday launch.
Mayflower Cigars is the latest consumer brand announced by conservative media outlet, The Daily Wire, and run by the outlet’s podcast host and cigar aficionado Michael Knowles.
Knowles revealed the launch of Mayflower Cigars during the Wednesday episode of The Michael Knowles Show.
In preparation of their launch, Mayflower Cigars acquired enough product to sell through the upcoming holiday season but sold out of a four-month supply totaling nearly 30,000 cigars within 24 hours of its Wednesday debut.
The podcast host updated customers on the launch in a Thursday X post.
“Thanks to everyone who ordered from Mayflower Cigars!” Knowles wrote. “We did not expect to sell out of our entire four-month supply in 24 hours and are working hard to restock.”
Mayflower Cigars is currently ramping up shipments from Nicaragua to meet “unprecedented” demand, per the podcast host.
“After that’s gone, it might take some time, as we cannot rush the aging process on these premium cigars,” Knowles added, urging customers to preorder products as they became available.
UPDATE: Thanks to everyone who successfully ordered from https://t.co/CFcn159ON7! We did not expect to sell out of our entire four-month supply in 24 hours and are working hard to restock. We have a small traunch due soon from Nicaragua that should be able to ship for Christmas.… pic.twitter.com/6wrq2bIr2o
— Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) November 9, 2023
“All of The Daily Wire products are terrific … but often we’re reacting against somebody,” Knowles said during Thursday’s episode of his podcast. “When it comes to cigars, this is purely a labor of love.” Knowles said unlike The Daily Wire’s “Jeremy’s” brand, there was no “woke” equivalent in the tobacco industry.
Knowles said sales of Mayflower Cigars vastly exceeded his expectations and blew the expectations of the cigar industry “completely out of the water.”
Cory Bappert, CEO of Oliva Cigar Co, a Mayflower manufacturing partner, said the tobacco product’s first day sales were “astonishing.”
“Mayflower Cigars was the best first day cigar launch we have ever had at Brandshopper,” said Brandshopper’s Special Projects Chief, Alex Svenson, a distribution partner of Mayflower Cigars.
The podcast host said the launch of his company was “a dream come true.”
“There are few things in this life that I’ve loved longer than my wife, whom I first kissed at age sixteen,” Knowles said of Mayflower Cigars’ launch. “Cigars happen to be one of them.”
The podcast host said he pitched the idea of starting a cigar company to The Daily Wire for about five years.
“Finally, probably just to get me to shut me up about it, they gave me the green light one year ago,” he said. “And crucially, they let me do whatever I want with it.”
Knowles said The Daily Wire allowed him to create the Mayflower Cigar brand and tobacco blends along with selecting a factory and distribution center.
Mayflower Cigars has released two original cigars, Mayflower Dawn and Mayflower Dusk, both of which are offered in Churchill, Toro, and Robusto sizes.
“We tried out many, many blends to arrive at the absolute perfect combination of tobaccos with the absolute perfect construction and the absolute perfect amount of aging,” Knowles said of Mayflower Cigars’ flagship blends. “Fine-tuned precisely to my extremely exacting standards.”
