Cuba - Tobacco Reporter

Habano Festival Concludes With Gala

The 23rd Habano Festival culminated March 3 with the gala dinner held at the Pabexpo Fairgrounds in Havana. Around 1,200 attendees enjoyed the night complemented by national and international music, dance and indoor fireworks. The gala was also honored by the presence of Cuban President Miguel Diaz Canel, who attended the event along with other government authorities.

The evening paid tribute to the Partagas brand with the launch of the Linea Maestra, the brand’s most premium line, made up of three new vitolas: Origen (46 ring gauge x 154 mm length), Rito (52 ring gauge x 168 mm length) and Maestro (56 ring gauge x 132 mm length). Each of these vitolas will reach the market in a special case containing 20 units.

For the first time in the history of the brand and the Habanos portfolio, the vitolas of this new Partagas line will be made with 100 percent tobacco grown in San Luis, in the Vuelta Abajo plantations located in the Pinar del Rio region.

The gala night also featured a Hall of Fame that illustrated the great work of the people who have made the Habano what it is today.

One of the highlights of the evening was the auction of the exclusive humidors dedicated to the six global Habanos brands: Cohiba, Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta, Partagas, Hoyo de Monterrey and H. Upmann. The proceeds reached a total of €11,220,000 ($11,965,309) and will be donated to the Cuban public healthcare system.

March 6, 2023

Habanos Revenues Reach $545 Million

Habanos S.A. has announced it generated $545 million in revenue in 2022. It’s nearly a 2 percent boost over its 2021 revenue, a representative of the manufacturing and distribution arm of the Cuban cigar industry told Tobacco Reporter during its coverage of the 23rd edition of the Habano Festival on Monday.

The company also stated that its largest markets for cigar sales are Spain, France, Germany, China and Switzerland, consecutively. These are the same five top countries as 2021, though China was listed second and France was listed fourth.

Globally, Europe, with a 53.7 percent market share, continues to hold the top spot for regional sales, however, its percentage was the only region to experience a decline in sales. Europe is followed by the Asia-Pacific region (19.3 percent), the Americas (15.3 percent), and Africa/Middle East (11.7 percent).

“These results reflect the perfect combination of the passion we all feel in this wonderful Habano business and the strength of our brands,” said Maritza Carrillo González and Luis Sánchez-Harguindey Pardo de Vera, co-presidents of Habanos S.A., in a press release. “They put the cherry on top of the unique tobacco that grows in this land and that offers unparalleled moments and experiences to aficionados from all over the world.”

Habanos says it grew its worldwide network of official sales outlets by 10 percent in 2022. It also announced the current count of its cigar retail experiences as follows:

17 Cohiba Atmosphere locations (20 in 2021)
157 La Casa del Habano stores (160 in 2021)
1,264 Habanos Specialists (1,217 in 2021)
2,744 Habanos Point designated stores (2,465 in 2021)
587 Habanos Lounge and Habanos Terrace locations (486 in 2021)

Last year, Habanos S.A. announced a new “global pricing standard,” which greatly increased the prices of Cuban cigars around the world. The company has already announced at least two additional price increases for 2023.

Habanos reported a turnover of $568 million in 2021, up 15 percent growth over the previous year.

March 1, 2023

Cuba Gears Up for Habanos Festival

Habanos is gearing up to celebrate the 23rd edition of its Habano Festival in Havana, Feb. 27 to March 3, the company announced in a press note.

The state-run tobacco firm has prepared a host of activities, workshops, lectures and presentations to share knowledge of its tradition and value chain. It expects guests from more than 110 countries.

The 23rd edition of the Habano Festival kicks off with the opening of the trade fair. This year’s edition brings together more than 270 exhibitors from 10 countries. That same night, Club Habana will host a Welcome Evening, which will revolve around Montecristo and its much-appreciated Línea Open.

The mid-week evening will take place at El Laguito Protocol Room and will feature Bolívar and La Casa del Habano. It will celebrate the brand’s 121 years and the worldwide importance of the international network of franchised specialized stores with the presentation of a new vitola.

The grand finale will be the March 3 gala dinner at Pabexpo. This evening will be dedicated to Partagás. One of the most important moments of the festival will be the Habanos Awards Ceremony and the traditional humidor auction, whose proceeds will go, as is customary, to the Cuban public health system.

In parallel with the festival, Fernando González García, president of the Cuban Association of Vitolfilia, and Zoe Nocedo, member of the association, will present a seminar at the Havana Convention Center, titled “The Partagás brand as seen through Vitolfilia.”

Throughout the week, the same venue will host masterclasses on the Habanos-making process, as well as tastings and pairings with different products.

Visitors will also experience a new edition of the Habanos World Challenge in which contestants demonstrate their knowledge and mastery of the different stages of Habano making and enjoyment.

The program of activities at the 23rd Habano Festival will be rounded out by visits to plantations, which this year will take place in in the Vuelta Abajo zone, in the Pinar del Río region, as well as visits to the Partagás and La Corona factories.

February 20, 2023

Habanos Appoints First Woman as Co-President

Habanos S.A., the manufacturing and distribution arm of the Cuban cigar industry, has announced that Maritza Carrillo González has been appointed as its new co-president after being approved by Habanos shareholders.

Carrillo’s promotion is “endorsed by the experience, knowledge and work she has been performing for several years in different positions within Habanos, S.A. and other entities related to Habanos,” according to a release.

She is the first woman to serve as co-president of the company. She is rumored to be replacing Inocente Núñez Blanco as one of the company’s two co-presidents alongside fellow co-president Luis Sánchez-Harguindey Pardo de Vera.

Carrillo holds a degree in International Economic Relations and has been linked to the world of Habanos since serving as a founding team member of the company.

She has held various responsibilities in the commercial, marketing and business development divisions of Habanos.

From 2006 to 2011, she served as marketing director and head of Havanesa stores at Empor, S.A. (the exclusive Habanos distributor in Portugal).

In 2011, she was promoted to serve as business development director of the company.

She later assumed the position of president of Comercial Iberoamericana S.A. (COIBA) based in Spain.

In 2021, Carillo became general manager of Tabagest S.A., where served until her recent appointment as co-president of Habanos.

The move comes as the company is preparing for the 23rd edition of the Habanos Festival taking place from Monday, Feb. 27th, to Friday, March 3rd. It is the premier event for the Cuban cigar industry.

Habanos reported a turnover of $568 million in 2021, up 15 percent growth over the previous year.

February 20, 2023

Cohiba Trademark Canceled in U.S.

After more than 25 years of court battles, General Cigar Co.’s trademark for Cohiba cigars was canceled by the United States Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB).

Scandinavian Tobacco Group, General’s parent company, and Empresa Cubana del Tabaco (Cubatabaco) have fought over the U.S. rights to the Cohiba trademark since 1997. In a ruling earlier this month, the TTAB sided in favor of the Cuban cigar conglomerate in its claim on the name, saying that General Cigar Co.’s registrations on the Cohiba trademark are to be canceled due to a violation of an international agreement that dates back to 1929.

In the U.S., the Cohiba brand is made by General Cigar Co. and is known for a Cohiba logo with a red dot that fills the O in the word. In the rest of the world, the Cohibas found on store shelves come from Cuba and are known for a gold and black color scheme as well as the profile image of a Taino Indian, writes Patrick Lagreid from Halfwheel.

While the TTAB’s ruling indicated that General’s registrations on the Cohiba marks are to be canceled “in due course,” it does not mean that the General-made Cohibas have to immediately be pulled from store shelves. First, the TTAB did not award the Cohiba mark to Cubatabaco; second, General Cigar Co. has vowed to appeal, saying that it will continue to manufacture and sell Cohiba cigars during that process.

Cohiba is a particularly unique case due to both its prominence on the global stage and its creation by the state-run tobacco company after the Cuban Revolution, whereas other brands with Cuban roots that General Cigar Co. owns, such as Partagas, Hoyo de Monterrey and La Gloria Cubana, were assumed by the Cuban government in 1959.

Similarly, General’s largest competitor in the cigar industry, Altadis USA, owns several brands with pre-Revolution roots, including Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta and H. Upmann. Prior to Imperial Brands selling its premium cigar business in April 2020, Altadis USA was owned by Imperial, which also owned a 50 percent stake in Habanos S.A., a joint venture with the Cuban tobacco monopoly for the sales and marketing of Cuban cigars. Imperial also owned stakes in distributors of Habanos S.A. products around the world and stakes in companies that make and distribute Cuban machine-made cigars.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in 2015 ruled in favor of Cubatabaco. After the Supreme Court’s denial to hear the case, it went to the TTAB.

December 30, 2022

Cuba Plots Tobacco Course Post-Hurricane

Tabacuba Business Group of Cuba is drawing up new strategies for tobacco output in the 2022–2023 harvest following the destruction of Hurricane Ian, reports Prensa Latina.

Marino Murillo, president of Tabacuba, considered the Pinar del Rio province as decisive in the effort.

All tobacco that was protected in natural curing houses and warehouses will be collected; 33,000 tons of the existing 41,000 tons are in this province, which reported 80 percent infrastructure destruction.

Anywhere from 15,000 tons to 17,000 tons of tobacco will be taken to other provinces, and seedbed irrigation will be immediately resumed.

Warehouses and natural curing houses that are in good condition will be stripped of available materials because the country is deficient in wood, according to Murillo.

Tobacco growers in Pinar del Rio kept 650 tons of covered tobacco from being damaged with their early actions before the hurricane.

According to Murillo, Cuba is still planning on planting tobacco, which covers 15,000 ha nationwide, but the area to be used in Pinar del Rio has not yet been defined and will depend on possible curing houses that can be rebuilt.

October 8, 2022

Cuba Marks Cohiba Anniversary

Although a year late, Habanos is celebrating its most iconic brand’s 55th birthday.

By Timothy S. Donahue

Cuba is trying to get back to a sense of normalcy. Covid served a crushing blow to the reclusive island’s tourism industry. It also caused chaos in its cigar production chain from the farms to the factory floor. However, after a year’s delay, Habanos, the government-owned distributor of Cuban cigars, is welcoming cigar connoisseurs to celebrate the 55th anniversary of its most iconic brand, Cohiba.

While officially the event began on Wednesday with a cocktail reception at the El Laguito event center nearby where Cohibas are produced, media were given an opportunity Tuesday to mingle with representatives of Habanos. During the media event, Leopoldo Cintra Gonzalez, commercial vice president for Habanos, told Tobacco Reporter that the Cohiba brand has shown strength throughout its history and remains one of the most exclusive cigars on the global market.

He mentioned Cuba’s “always present” former leader Fidel Castro who first launched the Cohiba brand in 1966 and passed away in 2016. “It has not been an easy 55 years. We have had to be very innovative, which is normal for Habanos,” Cintra Gonzalez said through a translator. “But for this [exquisite] brand, because of the love everyone puts into the brand … especially the hands of the torcedors in El Laguito who put in so much effort … remains a favorite of consumers around the world.”

Typically, brand anniversaries for Habanos happen during the company’s annual cigar festival held in February. However, that event has been cancelled the past two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Next year, the festival will return, and the 2023 Festival del Habano XXIII will take place from Feb. 27 to March 3.

Thursday, attendees will attend a tour of the El Laguito factory during operating hours and have an opportunity to see how the Cohiba cigars are produced followed by a gala dinner Friday evening that will include an auction of two exclusive humidors, the proceeds from which will help support the Cuban healthcare system.

The Cohiba 55 Aniversario, which measures 5 9/10 inches (150 mm) long with a 57 ring gauge, is a new vitola called Victoria. The cigar also wears a foot band, the first time an Edicion Limitada release from Habanos has done so. All of the tobacco blend comes from the Pinar del Rio province of Cuba and includes seco and ligero filler leaves, undergoing an additional fermentation in barrels to give the brand a distinctive aroma and flavor.

According to media reports, Phoenicia Trading Co. stated in May that the retail price of the Cohiba 55 Aniversario at its duty-free location in the Beirut airport would be $300 per cigar.

Timothy Donahue is the assistant editor of Tobacco Reporter. Since joining our team in January 2013, he has become not only an expert on the traditional tobacco business but also a well-respected voice in the rapidly developing vapor industry. Tim spends much of his time on the road, attending conferences and interviewing industry representatives. His networking skills, work ethic and quick mind are valuable assets to our diverse audience.

September 7, 2022

Habanos Reports Record Turnover

Habanos reported a turnover of $568 million in 2021, up 15 percent growth over the previous year.

“The 2021 results confirm the solid path we are on, despite the crisis caused by Covid-19. Last year we surpassed the $500 million mark for premium cigar sales worldwide, an all-time record for the category and a testament to the enormous potential of our business,” Habanos wrote in a statement attributed to its co-presidents, Inocente Núñez Blanco and Luis Sánchez-Harguindey Pardo de Vera.

“We are very proud to lead the premium cigar category and to continue to grow despite the situations experienced over the past two years,”

In terms of volume, Habanos, top markets were Spain, China, Germany, France and Switzerland. Europe remains Habanos’ main regional market, with 59 percent of global sales volume, followed by Asia Pacific (16 percent), America (14 percent) and Africa and the Middle East (11 percent).

“At Habanos, we maintain our commitment to offer the best experience to our aficionados, exclusive products and novelties, all in keeping with the quality, tradition and unique origin that make our Habanos a luxury product appreciated all over the world,” Commercial Vice President Leopoldo Cintra González and Vice-President of Development José María López Inchaurbe wrote in a press note.

“Our aficionados have remained loyal to Habanos and their tastes and, in many cases over the past year, they have incorporated into their domestic consumption vitolas and brands that used to be part of a more social consumption.”

According to Habanos, the Covid-19 pandemic has changed consumer habits. However, working with its distributors, the company said it was able to keep alive smokers’ passion for Habanos with a combination of product launches, virtual events and—when possible—face-to-face events.

While strong demand, in combination with the pandemic, has delayed the supply of some of Habanos’ bestselling vitolas, the company managed to export 38 new products in 2021. Habanos says it the supply situation has gradually improved after the first quarter of 2022.

Following the pandemic-related cancelation of the Habanos Festival in 2021 and 2022, the company presented several new products, including : Cohiba Ambar Cohiba Ideales and Cohiba Edición Limitada 2021, at is virtual Habanos World Days.

Habanos will commemorate the 55th anniversary of its prestigious Cohiba brand on Sept. 9 in Havana.

May 10, 2022

Habanos Cancels 2022 Cigar Festival

The 2022 Habanos Festival has been officially canceled for the second year in a row.

“Habanos S.A. has been working to celebrate the 23rd Habanos Festival scheduled for February 2022, but we are forced to cancel said celebration due to the new epidemiological situation of the coronavirus in the world,” the company wrote on its website.

Instead, Habanos plans to treat its fans to the Habanos World Days, a virtual event that allows premium tobacco aficionados to share experiences and enjoying the rich culture that surrounds this exclusive handcrafted product.

This virtual meeting debuted in 2021 with more than 9,000 aficionados from over 140 countries, 200 media outlets and more than 75,000 visits for three days. The program included a visit to the Habanos virtual stand featuring a special Humidor designed in commemoration of Cohiba’s 55th anniversary. During the event, Habanos unveiled the nominees for the prestigious Habanos 2020 Awards, which recognize outstanding personalities for their work in the categories of Communication, Business and Production; and the winning aficionados for the online version of the Habanos World Challenge International Contest, which measures general Habano knowledge in its various stages of the process, from cultivation and production to enjoyment.

The Habanos Festival highlights Cuba’s cigar culture, with farm visits, factory tours and product samplings along with lavish entertainment.

Read Tobacco Reporter’s review of the 2020 Habanos Festival here.

January 11, 2022

Tag: Cuba

Although a year late, Habanos is celebrating its most iconic brand’s 55th birthday.