Renovation of international brands, coupled with the development and launch of new versions of Popular, are just some of the novelties this company has in store for 2011.

“This is the land of the world’s best tobacco,” said Antonio Nascimento, co-president of BRASCUBA Cigarrillos S.A., when referring to the warranties of authenticity and quality his company’s cigarette production boasts for both the domestic and world markets. And it’s all owed to top-of-the-line raw material. On the eve of the 13th Habano Festival, BRASCUBA is coming up with a more renewed portfolio that includes a new version of the Popular brand, as well as a follow-up on its international going, currently focused on ten markets in which Spain, Hong Kong, Germany and Mexico are all standouts. The company has outlined a thematic project that seeks to rediscover the origin of tobacco within the history of Cuba, and this is a continuation of its work with the Popular brand as a token of Cuban identity. One of the novelties BRASCUBA has in the offing this year is the first version of menthol-flavored black tobacco for its Popular brand, due out in April together with other versions for particular niches in the market. BRASCUBA Cigarrillos S.A. Marketing chief Anderson Moraes commented that this Brazilian-Cuban joint venture has managed to get a toehold to all markets in the five continents, quite a major achievement amid the tough economic situation all negotiations are going through all around the globe. Nowadays, exporting means a tad more than just sell what you produce for the domestic market; it also means to produce what each market sells based on demands, requirements and preferences among dealers and consumers, always with strict respect for both the brand’s quality and identity. In 2010, BRASCUBA rolled out its new Popular cigarette pack with plenty of good acclaim, a move that’s very much in sync with the strategy of making more luring products under a criterion of modernity. Today, Popular is the company’s leading brand in exports with over 70 percent of all sales in 2010. The brand has been particularly successful in Spain’s black cigarette market. Moreover, the company also sells the Cohiba brand in more than fifteen countries worldwide. Penciled in as a solid company –thanks to the recognition and leadership the group has achieved for the quality of its brands– BRASCUBA provides consumers with black-tobacco and Virginia tobacco cigarettes that meet with class all preferences in the market. BRASCUBA is a joint venture made up, on the one hand, of Souza Cruz, the leading cigarette company in the Brazilian market, and a member of British American Tobacco (BAT), that exports its 100-plus-year experience as a cigarette maker, cutting-edge technology, capital, technical expertise, Virginia tobacco and brands; and on the other hand of Cuba’s Tabacuba, attached to the Ministry of Agriculture, that chips in a centuries-old tradition as the planter of the world’s finest black tobacco, in addition to its soils, factory, qualified personnel and brands, things that turn this company into a successful partnership that really bears watching.