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| IMPERIAL TOBACCO SAYS IT'S ON TARGET |
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Page 1 of 2  Plus: High interest in a rare Tatuaje cigar in a jar!Los Angeles, July 28 – Prior to a more thorough report in September, Britain’s Imperial Tobacco reported that its 2008 results "remains in line with management’s expectations. The integration of Altadis is proceeding in line with our plans and the financial position of the Group also remains in accordance with our expectations." Now the world’s largest cigar company, Imperial’s report on its cigar section was brief, but to the point: Cigar volumes in the USA and Europe continue to be impacted by restrictions on smoking in public places and economic slowdown, particularly in the premium segment.The short note, presented without financials, reinforces the importance of the machine-made sector in Imperial’s portfolio, which includes Antonio y Cleopatra, El Producto, Hav-A-Tampa, Muriel, Phillies and many others. The new “variants” include additional flavors – especially for Backwoods and the introduction of more shapes of Dutch Masters and Phillies in tubes over the past year. In terms of total volume, in the last detailed report filed by Altadis, S.A. for the nine months ended September 30, 2008, machine-made cigars with natural leaf wrappers (notably Dutch Masters) accounted for 43.6% by revenue and 49.4% by volume of all Altadis cigar sales. Premium cigars, including Altadis U.S.A. and the half-ownership of Habanos, S.A., accounted for 27.5% of revenues but only 5.9% of the volume. Other cigars – machine-mades and little cigars – were responsible for 18.6% of all cigar revenues and 44.6% of the volume. Hammer time: a new cigar jar! While there has been plenty of auction action on eBay and elsewhere of late – Opus X at $20+ per stick and so on – a new item excited bidders last week. It was a rarely-seem Tatuaje ceramic jar of 19 black-labeled cigars, of which 1,000 were made (19,000 cigars total), reportedly of Nicaraguan tobacco at Don Pepin Garcia’s Tabacalera Cubana in Nicaragua. The mostly-black jar contains the cigars (5 5/8 inches by 46 ring) and the cigars themselves have a pig-tail head. |
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Did you know?
“Cigars in glass jars have been popular for decades; the Belinda and Belinda Black have them today!
