Habanos S.A. is a

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

manufacturing company Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a range ...

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

that controls the promotion, distribution, and export of premium

cigar A cigar is a rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco leaves made to be smoked. Cigars are produced in a variety of sizes and shapes. Since the 20th century, almost all cigars are made of three distinct components: the filler, the binder l ...

s and other tobacco products for Cuba worldwide. It was established in 1994. Ownership of Habanos S.A. is split equally between state-owned

Cubatabaco Cubatabaco, short for , is the Cuban state tobacco company. The company was formed in 1962, after the Cuban tobacco industry had been nationalized by Fidel Castro's socialist government. Cubatabaco handled all production and distribution of Cub ...

and privately held Spanish-based tobacco giant

Altadis Altadis is a Spanish-French multinational purveyor and manufacturer of cigarettes, tobacco and cigars. It was formed via a 1999 merger between Tabacalera, the former Spanish tobacco monopoly and , the former French tobacco monopoly. Through its i ...

. The company commercialises the brands Cohiba,

Montecristo Montecristo, also Monte Cristo (, ) and formerly Oglasa ( grc, Ὠγλάσσα, Ōglássa), is an island in the Tyrrhenian Sea and part of the Tuscan Archipelago. Administratively it belongs to the municipality of Portoferraio in the province o ...

, and Romeo y Julieta, among others.

Overview

The word (not normally capitalised) means literally ''(something) from Havana'', and is the word used in the Spanish-speaking world for Havana cigars and, sometimes, cigars in general. Habanos S.A. owns the trademarks of every brand of Cuban-made cigars and

cigarette A cigarette is a narrow cylinder containing a combustible material, typically tobacco, that is rolled into thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end, causing it to smolder; the resulting smoke is orally inhaled via the opp ...

s in the countries they are exported to and franchises the chain of cigar stores. To control distribution and protect against

counterfeiting To counterfeit means to imitate something authentic, with the intent to steal, destroy, or replace the original, for use in illegal transactions, or otherwise to deceive individuals into believing that the fake is of equal or greater value tha ...

, Habanos S.A. exports to only one

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of people, whether Natural person, natural, Legal person, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common p ...

in each country (Hunters & Frankau for

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

and

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

, 5th Avenue Cigars for

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, Intertabak for

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

Pacific Cigar Co. The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

for most of the

Pacific Rim The Pacific Rim comprises the lands around the rim of the Pacific Ocean. The ''Pacific Basin'' includes the Pacific Rim and the islands in the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Rim roughly overlaps with the geologic Pacific Ring of Fire. List of co ...

, etc.). The only nation to which Habanos S.A. doesn't sell cigars is the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, which has had a

trade embargo Economic sanctions are commercial and financial penalties applied by one or more countries against a targeted self-governing state, group, or individual. Economic sanctions are not necessarily imposed because of economic circumstances—they may ...

against Cuba since 1962. In 2000, the Franco-Spanish tobacco giant

purchased 50% of Habanos S.A. There has been speculation that their influence has led to Habanos' drastic restructuring of their cigar lines and size offerings, the adoption of marketing practices and production methods more in-line with cigar companies that market in the US, and the increasing number of "special release" and "limited edition" lines of cigars. It has also been suggested that Altadis might be ramping Habanos up ready to trade with the US, anticipating the end of the embargo. On the other hand, some observers have noted a restoration of Cuban cigar quality, which had declined dramatically in the 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union. Altadis was acquired by

Imperial Tobacco Imperial Brands plc (formerly Imperial Tobacco Group plc), is a British multinational tobacco company headquartered in Bristol, England. It is the world's fourth-largest international cigarette company measured by market share after Philip Mor ...

in February 2008. In May 2019, Imperial Tobacco announced their intention to sell their premium cigar division, including their share in Habanos S.A. One year later, Imperial Brands announced the sale of Habanos S.A. through two different transactions for a total of

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...

1,225 million. The first operation include the selling of the U.S.-based business, "Premium Cigar USA" to Gemstone Investment Holding Ltd., while in the second operation, Allied Cigar Corp. will acquire Imperial Brands' cigar business in the rest of the world, "Premium Cigar RoW".Imperial Brands vende negocio de puros
on Europa Press, 27 May 2020

References

External links

* {{Imperial Tobacco

Habanos S.A. brands The term habano (Spanish for "from Havana") most often refers to Cuban cigars. It may also refer to: Cigar companies * Habanos S.A. See also *Habanero (disambiguation) *Habanera (disambiguation) Habanera (feminine form of the Spanish word ''ha ...

Tobacco companies of Cuba Cuban brands Imperial Brands Companies established in 1994