5th Avenue Gets New Commercial Manager

5th Avenue Products Trading GmbH—the distributor of Cuban cigars in Austria, Germany and Poland—will have a new commercial manager.

Bárbara Leyva de la Torre, who has served in the role for six years, is leaving the position, which will be taken over by Osmar Hernández Fuentes. As is often the case with other distributors, these local management roles are filled by employees from Habanos S.A., the worldwide distributor of Cuban cigars.

Hernández began his career in the cigar industry in 1997 as an employee at the famous El Laguito factory, the home of Cohiba. He served as factory manager at El Laguito from 2003-2006, then moved to the larger Romeo y Julieta factory, where he served as the production manager from 2007-2011 before moving to Cuba’s largest factory, La Corona, in 2011. A press release says he enjoys Cuban baseball and the corona gorda vitola.

Habanos S.A. has at least some ownership in every local distributor around the world. In the case of 5th Avenue, the company is owned half by Habanos and half by Villiger.