Cubatabaco

Cubatabaco , actually: Empresa Cubana del Tabaco , is a Cuban state company with a monopoly on all cigars in the country. The company was founded in 1962 after Fidel Castro's socialist government nationalized the entire Cuban tobacco industry. Cubatabaco is responsible for all production steps from tobacco growing to packaging and delivery of the cigars. The tobacco farmers buy the raw tobacco at prices set by the state and then take them to the central raw tobacco stores of Cubatabaco or their cigar factories for further fermentation and processing. Cubatabaco also controls cigar sales in Cuba.

Habanos SA

Habanos SA logo on Cuban cigar boxes

In 1994 the subsidiary Habanos SA was founded, which is exclusively responsible for sales and marketing worldwide. The only countries where Habanos SA does not sell cigars are the United States and Cuba , due to the 1962 trade embargo .

In 2000, 50% of Habanos SA was taken over by the Spanish-French tobacco company Altadis . Altadis was previously responsible for the distribution of Cuban cigars in Spain and France, together with Coprova. In this way, Altadis was able to exert direct influence on the product portfolio of Habanos SA and Cubatabaco for the first time, after the Cuban companies had been dependent on loans from Altadis several times in the past.

The takeover and influence of Altadis led to massive product cancellations in 2001/2002 and 2006/2007, which meant that many formats or entire brands such as Gispert or Troya were discontinued. In addition, the marketing focus was placed on the positioning of the Cuban cigar as a luxury product. This led to numerous new launches in the high-priced segment, such as the series limited to one year or to certain markets ( Ediciones Limitadas and Ediciones Regionales ).

In February 2008, Altadis and with it the shares in Habanos SA were acquired by Imperial Tobacco for 16.2 billion euros.

Cuban cigar brands (selection)

• Belinda
• Bolivar
• Cabañas
• Cohiba
• Cuaba
• Davidoff (before 1989)
• Dunhill
• Diplomaticos
• El Rey del Mundo
• Fonseca
• Gispert
• Guantanamera
• Hoyo de Monterrey
• José L. Piedra
• Juan Lopez
• La Flor de Cano
• La Gloria Cubana
• Montecristo
• Partagás
• Por Larranaga
• Punch
• Quintero
• Rafael Gonzalez
• Ramón Allones
• Romeo y Julieta
• San Cristobal
• Saint Luis Rey
• Sancho Panza
• Trinidad
• Troy
• H. Upmann
• Vegas Robaina
• Vegueros

Web links

• Habanos SA - Sitio Oficial (Spanish and English)
• Homepage of the Habanos sole importer '5th Avenue Products'

Individual evidence

1. ↑ CUBANET - Altadis to Buy 50% of Cuba's Corporacion Habanos for $ 500 Mln, December 9, 1999 ( Memento of the original from May 24, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ Cuban Cigar Website - List of discontinued Cuban cigars
3. ↑ Min Ron Nee: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Post-Revolutionary Havana Cigars, 2005
4. ↑ Art of Smoke - Imperial Tobacco takes over Altadis for 16.2 billion euros, July 18, 2007