March 4, 2024 Charlie Minato Weekly News

Weekly News (March 4, 2024)

Habanos S.A. Reports Record $721 Million in Revenue for 2023, Up 31 Percent

All those price increases have paid off, and then some. Habanos S.A., the company responsible for the sales of Cuban cigars around the world, announced that 2023 was not only a record-setting year for revenue but a record-shattering year. The company generated more than $175 million more in 2023 compared to 2022. Two years ago, I was told that the new co-owners of Habanos S.A.—the Cuban government owns half, the new owners own the other half—told management to increase top-line numbers, and it did so by increasing prices. It has definitely worked.

Laudisi Acquires Caldwell Cigar Co.

I’m not going to do a lengthy Eight Thoughts article, but here are a few:

  1. We should celebrate when a company is sold because most companies never get an exit, they go out of business.
  2. Laudisi really seems like it wants to let Robert Caldwell run a cigar company but without having to worry about the operations side as much.
  3. This is a unique scenario where Caldwell, the company that was bought, will be the largest cigar group at the company. That bodes well for long-term success.
  4. Robert Caldwell and Juan Jaramillo, the former owners of Caldwell, have been given equity in Laudisi, which should help them stick around longer. Smart move.

Habanos S.A. Generates Nearly $20 Million During 2024 Humidor Auction

I was at the Festival del Habano in 2020 and witnessed the then record-setting €4.27 million humidor auction. I remarked then that the annual humidor auction was changing. After one humidor sold for €2.4 million, it was clear to me then that participating in this auction had entered a different tax bracket.

A lot has changed since February 2020, but that prediction was about as good as any I’ve ever made.

Prior to 2020, humidors routinely were selling in the €100,000-200,000 range. All of the one-off humidors sold last week in Havana sold for more than €1 million and the majority sold for more than €2 million.

Cigar News

Festival del Habano XXIV

Legislation

International

State

  • Arkansas Attorney General Rejects Ballot Initiative Rolling Back Tobacco Taxes — via UALPublicRadio.org

Local

  • Evanston, Ill.’s Flavored Tobacco Sales Ban Goes Into Effect on April 1 — via CBSNews.com
  • Livermore, Calif. City Council Gives Initial Support for More Compliance Monitoring of Tobacco Retailers — via LivermoreVine.com
  • Multnomah County, Ore. Flavored Tobacco Remains On Hold as Court Extends Its Stay — via KGW.com

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Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.

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