From a mall kiosk in Denver to cigar concierge of the Four Seasons.
Family-owned since 2012. Started with a kiosk and a hunch about what was broken in cigar wholesale. Fourteen years and four businesses later - here's how we built it.
Peter Roth
I started MDC Wholesale Cigars in 2012 with a single kiosk in a Denver mall. I had a hunch the cigar retail model was broken. Retailers were buying generic inventory from distributors who didn't understand their customers, then watching those cigars sit in humidors for months - turning stale and cutting margins. The distributors who controlled the category were playing a volume game. Nobody was playing a quality-of-humidor game.
So we did it differently. We built MDC around three ideas that nobody else was offering at wholesale: we take back what doesn't sell, we train your staff, and we build inventory tailored to your specific clientele - not our catalog. Those three commitments look simple written out. They take fourteen years of reps to execute consistently.
Fourteen years later, MDC supplies the Four Seasons, the Broadmoor, Caesars Entertainment, Harrah's, Brandy Library, Brown Palace, Wind Creek Casino, Zia Park Casino, Indiana Grand, and hundreds of independent retailers, casinos, resorts, golf clubs, and restaurants across the country. We've never lost the family approach - because we're still a family business. Yes, there are dogs in the office. Yes, half the team is sometimes out skiing. Yes, the same person who writes your invoice also answers your phone when something needs fixing.
If you run a venue where cigars either matter to your guests or should - a casino, a hotel, a steakhouse, a club, a specialty retailer - I'd like to show you how we work.
Book a 15-min Call With Me →How MDC got built
Growing a family cigar distributor into a national wholesale operation wasn't a five-year plan. It was a decade and a half of saying yes to the right accounts and no to the wrong ones.
The Denver mall kiosk
Peter opens MDC's first operation - a single mall kiosk. The learning from retail: customers want cigars matched to them, not to a supplier's overstock. That insight becomes the founding principle of the wholesale business.
First hospitality account
A Denver hotel adopts MDC's curation-plus-training approach. The cigar program moves from a neglected humidor behind the bar to a revenue line the GM actually tracks.
Four Seasons · Broadmoor · Caesars
The flagship hospitality relationships that still anchor MDC today. Each was earned one property at a time - no corporate master-vendor deal, no pre-negotiated national rollout. Just working programs, one humidor at a time.
The pandemic test
Hospitality accounts shut down for months. The no-risk exchange proved out under the harshest possible scenario - retailers returned what wasn't selling, came back alive on the other side, and the relationships strengthened. Every MDC account that existed pre-pandemic is still an MDC account.
Four businesses built · three acquired
MDC was joined over the years by an online retail operation, a brick-and-mortar cigar shop, and a cigar bar & whiskey lounge. Three of those were acquired by a private equity group in a seven-figure transaction. The combined view across wholesale, retail, hospitality, and consumer informs every recommendation MDC makes today.
Hundreds of active accounts. National coverage.
Still family-owned. Still a phone call that goes straight to someone who knows your humidor. The same three commitments that started in the Denver mall - return anything that doesn't sell, train your staff, curate to your clientele.
Five operating principles.
After fourteen years in the category, most of the lessons boil down to five commitments we insist on - and five behaviors we deliberately refuse to adopt.
What MDC does
- 01
We curate the humidor.
Every account starts with a proposal sized to the venue, the clientele, and the service model. Not a catalog - a program.
- 02
We take back what doesn't sell.
The no-risk exchange is not a sales pitch - it's a standing operational commitment that changes how much capital risk a retailer has to take on cigars.
- 03
We train your staff.
Cigar cut, light, recommendation, pairing, and upsell. Included with every account, on-site for national clients.
- 04
We answer the phone.
Direct line to a rep who knows your humidor. Not a portal. Not a ticket. A person.
- 05
We tell the truth about supply.
If a cigar is hard to get, we say so. If your program doesn't need it, we say so. If your existing rotation is stronger than our proposal, we say that too.
What MDC doesn't do
- 01
We don't stock what we wouldn't sell in our own humidors.
Every SKU in the MDC catalog is a hand-rolled premium. No private-label, no machine-mades, no drugstore filler. If it wouldn't land on the menu of a cigar lounge we run, it doesn't land on yours.
- 02
We don't operate an open checkout.
Wholesale is a relationship, not a transaction. Every account starts with a call.
- 03
We don't promise allocation we can't deliver.
If a limited release is tight, we'll say so. Broken promises on rare cigars are how retailer relationships die.
- 04
We don't push slow-movers onto your shelf to clear our warehouse.
If a cigar isn't turning on MDC's own floors, it doesn't get proposed for yours. Every recommendation is something we've watched sell - across fourteen years of running cigar retail and hospitality ourselves.
- 05
We don't take accounts that aren't a fit.
If your venue profile doesn't match how we work, we'll point you at a better-fit distributor on the discovery call.
Fourteen years. Four cigar businesses. One family - still answering the phone the way we did from the kiosk in the Denver mall. If the person writing the check also picks up the phone, you already know what kind of distributor you are dealing with.
Four businesses built. Three acquired.
Over fourteen years Peter has built four cigar-industry businesses spanning wholesale, online retail, brick-and-mortar retail, and hospitality. Three were acquired by a private equity group in a seven-figure transaction. MDC is where his focus sits now - and the combined operating view across all four continues to inform every recommendation we make.
Acquired
Online Retail
Direct-to-consumer online cigar retail. Acquired in a seven-figure PE transaction.
Seven-Figure ExitAcquired
Retail Storefront
Brick-and-mortar cigar retail - the customer-experience lab. Acquired in a seven-figure PE transaction.
Seven-Figure ExitAcquired
Cigar Bar & Whiskey Lounge
Hospitality operation in Denver. Acquired in a seven-figure PE transaction.
Seven-Figure ExitBusinesses were rebranded under the acquirer.
The ground we covered.
Wholesale distribution. Online retail. A brick-and-mortar cigar shop. A whiskey-and-cigar lounge. Every kind of cigar transaction, touched first-hand. Representative of the operating environments - not the acquired brands themselves.
Cigar Lounge 
Retail Curation 
Whiskey Bar 
The Rotation 
Behind the Counter Just A Few of the Brands That Trust Us
-
Carrabelle, FL -
Golf Course · Thornton, CO -
Greenwood Village, CO -
Hotel · Denver, CO -
Casino · Indiana -
Hotels & Resorts -
Casino & Resort Group -
Nationwide Properties -
Cigar Lounge · Manhattan, NY -
Indiana -
Shelbyville, IN -
Cigar Lounge · Springboro, OH -
Historic Resort -
Crofton, MD -
Washington, DC -
Bethlehem, PA -
Cigar Shop · Knoxville, TN -
Destin, FL -
Rancho Mirage, CA -
Hobbs, NM - Carrabelle, FL
- Golf Course · Thornton, CO
- Greenwood Village, CO
- Hotel · Denver, CO
- Casino · Indiana
- Hotels & Resorts
- Casino & Resort Group
- Nationwide Properties
- Cigar Lounge · Manhattan, NY
- Indiana
- Shelbyville, IN
- Cigar Lounge · Springboro, OH
- Historic Resort
- Crofton, MD
- Washington, DC
- Bethlehem, PA
- Cigar Shop · Knoxville, TN
- Destin, FL
- Rancho Mirage, CA
- Hobbs, NM
And hundreds of independent retailers, casinos, restaurants & clubs nationwide.
Fourteen years of lessons, compressed into one 15-minute call.
Apply for an MDC account. If you qualify, we open your wholesale account and process your first order right away. If MDC isn't the right fit for your business, we'll tell you who is.
Most premium venues running a catalog-driven cigar program leave five figures a year on the table in dead inventory alone. Every quarter you wait is another quarter of that leak.
P.S. Yes, the person writing your invoice is the same person who answers your phone. That's the family part of family-owned.
MDC Affiliate Program
Join our affiliate program: refer a business to MDC and earn 10% in store credit (or 5% cash) on every order they place for a full year.