Top management at Graycliff is planning to expand its airport lounge concept to as many as 50 locations as the brand reaches for a global presence.  With a new lounge already in the new U.S. departures terminal at Nassau's Lynden Pindling International Airport (LPIA), Paolo Garzaroli, the president of the Graycliff Cigar Company, told Guardian Business that a $1 million facility will move into the International arrivals building once the paint dries.

The company is also looking to add another lounge in Bermuda next year, along with two more in Cincinnati, Ohio in the second quarter of 2012.  With 100 percent of the financing coming from Graycliff, he estimated the total cost of each lounge would be between $400,000 and $1.8 million, depending on the size or scale.  In all, Garzaroli anticipated there will be "10 or more" Graycliff airport lounges by the end of next year, and within five years, the brand should be well positioned as a global leader in the market with 50 locations.

"This is very much an expansion of the brand," he said.  "At first, it was a way to promote the cigar side of the business, but it grew.  Now the lounges have smoking and non-smoking areas. The cigar aspect is something that's niche and appeals to the high net worth client. People come looking for you, and then they discover other dimensions," he added.

Retail and bar services rank high on the list of other offerings for Graycliff Airport Lounges.
One of the more unique areas of diversification for Graycliff is the watches industry. Entering into this market in just the past year, Garzaroli said a factory has been established in Switzerland to produce the second generation of time instruments.  The first generation can now be found at John Bull and Graycliff outlets, including the airport lounges.

In terms of the upcoming Graycliff lounge at the International Arrivals building, Garzaroli told Guardian Business it will differ from the U.S. Departures outlet in that "it is more of the first-class lounge experience". A higher level of cuisine and services are expected to be on offer.
A concept Graycliff is considering for Nassau, but has already earmarked for Nashville, is an up-scale wine bar experience whereby guests use a card instead of cash to order glasses of Dom Perignon, for example.  Garzaroli called it a "heavy investment", although Graycliff is already known for having one of the largest wine collections in the world.

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