Welcome To The New World
Ever since the embargo on Cuba outlawed the sale of Cuban cigars in the United States, the division of cigar sales has been fairly straightforward: cigar lovers in the United States smoke non-Cuban cigars and the rest of the world smokes predominantly Havanas. The g of the embargo in 1962 left American smokers with no choice in the matter, and international cigar enthusiasts born and raised on Cuban cigars saw no reason to try anything different. And that’s how the story has more or less been for the better part of the last 50 years. But today, the story is changing.
Non-Cuban cigar companies have been more aggressive in selling their cigars outside of the United States, and recent shortages of Cuban cigars have persuaded the world to light up smokes from Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Honduras and other countries that aren’t normally part of the European repertoire. Walk into a cigar shop in London, Madrid, Paris or Berlin and you are quite likely to see non-Cuban cigars, something that would have been unthinkable not so long ago. Younger cigar fans play a role in this story as well. They aren’t as rigidly faithful to Cuban cigars and are willing to light up something new.
Known outside of America (perhaps pejoratively at one point) as “New World cigars,” non-Cuban smokes are starting to get some global attention. Attitudes toward non-Cuban cigars have shifted, especially in Europe, and cigarmakers big and small are more than willing to satisfy the growing international curiosity.
Ashton Distributors Inc. has seen an undeniable uptick in international demand. Ashton brands such as Ashton Classic and Ashton Virgin Sun Grown are produced in the Dominican Republic by Arturo Fuente while My Father Cigars makes Ashton’s La Aroma de Cuba and San Cristobal lines in Nicaragua. The family-owned, Philadelphia-based company has been selling internationally since the 1980s, but has seen a recent swell in sales.
“International sales of cigars have increased tremendously,” says Sathya Levin, president and CEO of Ashton. “For us, the business has doubled and tripled over the last few years.” Levin says that 10 years ago, international sales represented two to three percent. Today, it’s around eight percent, and he thinks there’s still room to grow. is Ashton’s strongest market, followed by Switzerland, Romania and Benelux, with growth in East Asia.
“Ashton Virgin Sun Grown and Ashton Estate Sun Grown are very popular,” he says. “La Aroma de Cuba and San Cristobal are also quite popular and growing. Due to trademark issues, these blends are sold outside of the U.S. under the brand names La Aroma del Caribe and Paradiso. The Cuban cigar shortage is certainly a factor. However, we have a wonderful network of ‘New World’ distributors and merchants who do a fantastic job representing our brands. They also deserve some credit.”
Rocky Patel is one of the most recognizable faces in the cigar industry and has made it a point to personally interact with as many consumers as possible. Because of this strategy, his brands are ubiquitous in the American market, both on retailer shelves and online. He makes cigars in Nicaragua and also has them produced under contract in Honduras by Nestor Plasencia. Although Patel strives to make something for everyone, many of his cigars tend to be big and bold in character, catering to the American palate. Today, the rest of the cigar-smoking world is starting to acquire a taste for Patel’s blends.
“Our European sales have really picked up like crazy,” he says. “It used to be less than two percent of our sales, and now I think it’s going to be 10 percent. The Eastern Bloc is definitely on fire right now. Asia too. Before, we couldn’t get a foot in the door. Now, people are expanding their horizons.”
With its large appetite for cigars in general, Spain is one of the more open-minded markets where non-Cuban smokes are gaining a foothold.
Tabacalera S.L.U. is Spain’s regional distributor of Cuban cigars, but the company finds itself in a unique position. Unlike most Cuban cigar distributors around the world, Tabacalera also distributes cigars of different origins, producing brands such as VegaFina and Aging Room.
“[The non-Cuban] Tabacalera brand portfolio has increased around 40 percent since 2019 in Spain, at 10 percent per year,” says Jorge Fernández Cabezas, who does international marketing for Tabacalera. “VegaFina is our key brand and the best-selling brand of the cigar market, including the Cuban brands.”
Most VegaFinas are made in the Dominican Republic at Tabacalera de Garcia, a large factory owned by Tabacalera (the brands are distributed in the U.S. through Altadis U.S.A). Tabacalera also sells the Honduran Flor de Copán line, which it introduced to Spain earlier this year, and provides the country with Nicaraguan cigars such as Aging Room, La Finca and Boneshaker.
Spain has traditionally been a very strong cigar demographic and is cited every year by Cuban monopoly Habanos S.A. as one of Cuba’s most important markets by volume, but Fernández Cabezas points to the current shortage of Cuban cigars as one of the driving factors for non-Cuban interest. It should be noted that Altadis U.S.A. also produces and distributes non-Cuban versions of heritage Cuban brands like Montecristo and Romeo y Julieta, but they are not sold outside of the United States due to trademark restrictions.
“It is obvious the Habanos shortage has forced some aficionados to try non-Cuban cigars during the last couple of years,” he says. “However, Habanos cigars are still by far the favorite of the Spanish aficionados. Seven out of every 10 euros spent in the market are spent on Habanos.”
Operating on an enormous scale, Danish corporate giant Scandinavian Tobacco Group produces and manages a very large portfolio of cigars made in Nicaragua, Honduras and the Dominican Republic. Like Tabacalera, it can’t sell its non-Cuban versions of Cuban brands such as Partagás and Cohiba outside the United States. This is reconciled by its flagship brand, Macanudo. Free of any international trademark restrictions, Macanudo is sold around the world in many varieties, and interest is growing.
“Demand for our handmade cigars has more than doubled in Europe over the last five years,” says Regis Broersma, president of STG’s North America and rest of world division. The company also makes and distributes other familiar brands such as CAO, Alec Bradley, Room101, Diesel and El Credito, all of which are sold beyond the borders of America. According to Broersma, the international growth of Macanudo and CAO in particular has been exponential.
Broersma says that global interest in his company’s products has been on a steady upswing for a decade. “Over the last 10 years, consumers around the world have been discovering cigars from the New World, embracing the wider range of brands, blends and smoking experiences they offer. This has helped to accelerate the growth of the New World category of handmade, cigars in Europe and elsewhere. The shortage of Cuban cigars has also helped to drive increased demand.” He names Asia, Spain, and as the biggest markets outside the United States for such brands as Macanudo and CAO.
The cigar powerhouse that is Arturo Fuente Cigar Co. has also expanded its international footprint. “My international business has grown six-fold in the last four years,” says owner and patriarch Carlos Fuente Jr., who makes brands such as the Fuente Fuente OpusX, Hemingway and Don Carlos in the Dominican Republic. “This is a new generation of smokers. Today, people try different cigars. They understand that there are different tastes.”
Fuente says that he considers Spain a prestigious cigar market but does more volume in . “Everybody wants OpusX, but it’s not widely available, and it’s not just Opus. It’s Don Carlos, it’s everything.” Fuente got serious about the European market when the FDA was granted authority to regulate the cigar industry. “That’s when I realized that we might lose up to 30 percent of our business because of regulation. I started going to the Dortmund [Intertabac] show because I needed to protect my employees and the people who were loyal.”
Naturally, the hope among cigarmakers is that Europeans acquire a long-lasting taste for non-Cuban cigars and are not just smoking them to temporarily fill a void. Drew Newman, fourth-generation owner of J.C. Newman Cigar Co., is confident the market will hold and Europeans will incorporate his cigars into their permanent rotation. The Florida-based company makes cigars in Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and even in the United States at its Tampa headquarters.
“Preeminent European cigar retailers who previously looked down on non-Cuban cigars now have shelves full of them and are recommending our cigars and other New World cigars to their best customers,” Newman says. “This was unfathomable just five years ago. Some of our importers in Europe told me that they expect this trend to continue and for Cuban cigars to largely be absent from European cigar stores in a couple of years. This also seems unfathomable.”
Newman says is the strongest market for J.C. Newman and the Nicaraguan Brick House brand does particularly well in that country. His company is able to efficiently supply Europe due to a bonded warehouse in Slovakia, which was established five years ago. Before the warehouse, importers had to place large orders and wait for months before the orders were fulfilled. Now, importers throughout the European union can place smaller orders and receive them within a week.
“Ten years ago, our international sales were less than five percent of our total sales. Today, they exceed 10 percent, but the gross sales have more than doubled because our overall business has grown,” he says.
In the United Kingdom, where Cuban cigars have a longstanding tradition rooted in history, non-Cuban cigars have found their way into the conversation. Tor Imports Ltd. is perhaps the region’s largest importer of New World cigars. Its brands include A.J. Fernandez, Casa Magna, Drew Estate, La Aurora, My Father Cigars, Oliva, La Flor Dominicana, Padrón and Tatuaje.
“We have seen a significant increase in demand and are witnessing a shift in interest in what used to be a very traditional, one-dimensional market,” says Scott Vines, managing director of Tor Imports. “Cigar enthusiasts are expanding their knowledge and opening their humidors to New World cigars. They understand different manufacturers freely competing against each other translates to better, richer, flawless cigars for everyone.”
When asked about the shortages of Cuban cigars, however, Vines doesn’t believe it’s been as strong a factor in the United Kingdom as it has been in other European countries. Rather, he points to the high prices of Cubans as well as the high quality and broad range that he sees present in non-Cuban cigars.
Another factor is personal connection. Outside of general company personnel, there are no real faces or particular people associated with each Cuban brand, leaving little room for meaningful interactions. Through in-store events, cigar festivals or large gatherings like Cigar Aficionado’s Big Smoke—which are drawing more and more cigar fans from all over the world—people can actually meet the brand owners, some of whom are carrying on a strong family legacy. Direct interactions like that hardly exist in the world of Cuban cigars.
“The U.K. has gotten to meet the faces behind the brands,” says Vines. “The trade has been to their world-class factories. We are not reinventing the wheel. We’re proud to say that Tor offers most of Cigar Aficionado’s No.1 Cigars of the Year of the last two decades, which happen to be New World cigars.”
While Tor controls a large portfolio of the U.K.’s non-Cuban cigars, it’s not alone. C.Gars Ltd. is another distributor, importing brands such as Arturo Fuente, Avo and Aladino as well as some private-label brands that include Inka and Michellero. C.Gars also controls several retail shops around the U.K., including La Casa del Habano stores, which are the official franchise chain of Cuba. According to C.Gars owner and managing director Mitchell Orchant, demand is up around 30 percent this year for all cigars, regardless of origin. That follows a 25 percent spike in demand the year before.
“New World sales seem to be fueled by the younger, new generation of cigars smokers,” Orchant observes. “The age demographic of new customers buying New World cigars is 24 to 32 years old.”
Orchant says that in general, he aims to have a 50/50 split of Cuban and non-Cuban cigars in his shops, however he still has stores that are 90 percent Cuban. He also sees price and quality as an attractive draw.
“I think the quality of New World cigars is so good now that many new cigar smokers simply stay with New World brands and don’t move on to trying Cuban cigars,” Orchant suggests. “Part of their appeal is that they are less expensive than Cuban cigars so they appeal to many clients who are outpriced from the Cuban cigar range.”
Prescient in its planning, Oliva Cigar Co. has been well ahead of the trend. Whereas Europe had previously been an afterthought for most cigarmakers, Oliva has been seriously developing its business in Europe before the continent’s recent non-Cuban epiphany.
“Oliva was one of the first non-Cuban brands that entered the international market, long before we acquired the company in 2016,” says brand owner Frederik Vandermarliere. His Belgian company, Vandermarliere Cigar Family, purchased Oliva cigars seven years ago and has since invested enormous resources into its , handmade cigar operation. For Oliva, the rewards couldn’t be clearer. Over the last 10 years, the percentage growth has been in the “double digits” though Vandermarliere shies away from offering specific numbers.
“We have a historically strong presence in with our own local sales teams,” Vandermarliere says. “In of market share, many other countries follow all over the world . . . Brand No. 1 is Oliva. Nub also found its space in different parts of the world.”
When asked about the current Cuban shortages, Vandermarliere draws a comparison to the wine world: “In the ’90s, there was a huge shortage of Bordeaux wines. People looked for new world alternatives—wines from Spain, Portugal, South Africa—and that completely changed the market. The Cuban cigar is still a fantastic product and its existence helps the entire market move forward and upward, but people now know that there is a valid alternative as well. You don’t drink the same wine every day. Well now they don’t smoke the same cigar every day.”
Canada is seeing similar growth in the non-Cuban segment. House of Horvath distributes a wide range of brands including Ashton, Oliva, Arturo Fuente, E.P. Carrillo, My Father and Quesada.
“Though Canada has a longstanding history with Cuban cigars, we’ve witnessed a sharply increased appetite for New World cigars over the past two years or so,” says Kurt Bradley, digital marketing manager and brand ambassador for House of Horvath. “As a result of the recent Habanos price hike, and the oppressive system of taxation-upon-taxation of all tobacco products in Canada, to the average cigar enthusiast the appeal of a Cuban has waned as of late.”
According to Bradley, Nicaraguan cigars lead New World sales by volume, followed by the Dominican Republic.
“Though Cuban cigars will always have a retail cachet to them, what we are seeing is a maturation of the Canadian palate,” Bradley adds.
Competing with Cuban cigars on the global scale is still an uphill battle, and this will most likely be the case for the foreseeable future. Habanos S.A. reported revenues of $545 million for 2022—up two percent from the previous year—so it’s difficult to ascertain just how much market share the Cuban monopoly is losing. What’s become clear is that non-Cuban cigars don’t carry the same stigma they used to in European markets, and acceptance is growing, even if they’re still marketed under the classification of “New World.”
“ ‘New World cigars’ is an umbrella term we started using back in 2011 to course-correct how we talked about cigars in the U.K.,” Vines says. “We’re thrilled it’s caught on beyond our borders. Can you imagine going to a wine shop and seeing French and non-French wine signage? New World cigars was only the first step. The U.K. is relearning about cigars in general and it’s magical.”
Read Next: Cigar Imports To The United States Reach 467 Million For 2023
