Brascuba Cigarrillos is the partner-ship between tabacuba and souza Cruz –brazil’s leading cigarette-making company and a subsidiary of british american tobacco (bat), the world’s second-largest maker of cigars and cigarettes. the new joint venture has resulted in a businesslike, beneficial and steady partnership that has been growing with each passing year.

At the threshold of the 11th Habano Festival, Fernando Sao Thiago comments that, like every year, the company will come to the show with a swatch of exportable goods, lodged in a more dynamic booth that will display such items as Popular and Cohiba cigarettes, two products that underscore brascuba’s commitment to making exports its top strategic priority. This company treasures a good deal of awards and prizes in recognition to the quality of its products and thorough care for its image in trade events held on the turf and overseas. Based on that priority, its number-one market is in Europe, chiefly in Spain. but they are also strong in Germany and in the duty-free segment of several European countries. In Latin america, its products sell like hotcakes in Mexico and Ecuador, and negotiations are now underway in argentina.

They landed once in brazil by the hand of Souza Cruz and are now planning to stage a comeback in that highly competitive South american market. In Japan, the company sells Cohiba and Romeo y Julieta cigarettes.

In Cuba, brascuba’s portfolio is basically made up of H. Upmann –the company’s flagship brand– Vegas de Robaina black cigarettes only for domestic sale under the Monterrey and Popular brands –the latter is the leading filtered cigarette brand produced by the company. but they also make the much coveted Hollywood brand –in partnership with Souza Cruz– and Lucky Strike, an international trademark owned by british american Tobacco and imported from Chile that belongs to the international brand segment.

Mr. Sao Thiago explains the partnership between Souza Cruz and Tabacuba rests on three foundations: firstly, the manufacture technological know-how, machineries, distribution technology and marketing; secondly, the brands that Souza Cruz has contributed to Tabacuba’s portfolio, and thirdly, exportations –a target that british american Tobacco keeps in its crosshairs because its status of big-time interna-tional company scattered in over a hundred nations around the world gives Cuba the necessary leverage to reach out to other markets.

Finally, brascuba’s perspective is to continue chipping in top-class products for Cuba’s domestic market through innovations to the brand portfolio –it has over 5,000 retail outlets through a dealership system highly recognized in corporate Cuba- in a bid to further please consumers with top-of-the-line products. For 2009, the company has mapped out an aggressive marketing plan aimed at ramping up exports and selling products made of Cuban tobacco, so recog-nized around the world for its superb quality.