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Scandinavian Tobacco Group’s Macanudo Café Hyde Park |
NETHERLANDS. Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) is set to increase its focus on hand-made cigars in the global travel retail channel. The company will present its new references at the TFWA World Exhibition next week (Stand number: Blue Village D10).
Emphasis will be placed on strategic brand Macanudo. The travel retail team has added 14 references to the existing CAO reference, CAO Champions Traveller’s Edition.
International Business Manager Global Travel Retail Koen van Vaerenbergh explained: “We understand the global travel retail channel demands a selection of brand ranges and packaging fitting a specific consumer i.e. traveller’s profile.
“Our machine-made cigar experience in global travel retail was used together with STG’s hand-made cigar experts to come to a very competitive range. We included small-sized boxes with a maximum of ten cigars, as well as smaller and assortment packs.”
Most of the emphasis will be on the main ranges within the Macanudo brand, Macanudo Café and Macanudo Maduro. In addition, Macanudo 1968, Macanudo’s flagship, will show the latest global travel retail exclusive four-pack mock-ups, planned for introduction next year. Frontmarks and skus are picked based on domestic market successes, with travel retail channel characteristics in mind.
Asked why global travel retail operators needed Macanudo, Sales and Marketing Manager Hand-Made Cigars Erwin Broeren responded: “Macanudo is the world’s leading hand-made cigar brand. In the US our strategic brand represents over one-third of the MC [machine-made cigar] market. Outside of the US, STG in the hand-made cigar category is a solid number three player. Our intention is to offer an alternative to the establishment of available brands and expand the New World cigars offer.”
Macanudo, Don Tomás, La Traviata, CAO and El Credito are brands owned by Scandinavian Tobacco Group. Brands outside the US and Canada are managed from the regional office in the Netherlands.
About Macanudo 1968
1968 is a reference to the year in which the General Cigar Company, a 100% subsidiary of Scandinavian Tobacco Group, bought the Temple Hall factory in Jamaica. At the same time, the legendary Cigar Master Ramón Cifuentes started developing the Macanudo brand that was brought on the market in 1971 and would eventually become the largest hand-made cigar brand in the world. Macanudo 1968 was introduced to the US in 2008, some 40 years later, with its global launch following in 2009.
Macanudo 1968 has a new, intense, full-flavoured taste. Matured in tercios (bales wrapped in palm bark) and in wooden barrels charred on the inside for a more enhanced fragrance, the Dominican and Nicaraguan tobacco unite, combining to become a characteristic filler, exclusively grown for General Cigar on the island of Ometepe in Nicaragua.
These tobaccos for the filler have been developed to complement the Habano Connecticut binder and the Honduran San Agustin wrapper.
Macanudo Café
Macanudo Café is produced in the Dominican Republic. Every cigar is wrapped in a Connecticut shade (grown in the shade) wrapper, which covers an elegant melange of Dominican and Mexican tobacco and a binder that is cultivated in the fertile regions of San Andres Tuxtla in Mexico.
Cigar Master Daniel Nuñez only uses matured tobaccos to ensure that each cigar always has the same mild aroma. Macanudo Café produces a distinctive and characteristic mild fragrance.
Macanudo Maduro
Macanudo Maduro was launched in the 1970s. As the years passed, the demand for a fuller, more powerful fragrance grew. To meet this demand, the Macanudo Maduro was adapted and re-launched in 1999.
Cigars from the Macanudo Maduro series are manufactured in the Dominican Republic with Connecticut broadleaf wrappers, which are described as oily and flavoursome. Macanudo Maduro has a calm, rich fragrance.
For details, contact Erwin Broeren, Sales and Marketing Manager Hand-Made Cigars, and Koen van Vaerenbergh, International Business Manager Global Travel Retail, Scandinavian Tobacco Group Eersel BV, Nieuwstraat 75-77, 5521 CB Eersel, PO Box 2, 5520 AA Eersel, The Netherlands, tel: +31 497 581 911, fax +31 497 516 730 or e-mail erwin.broeren@st-group.com Visit www.st-group.com
