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Alexandre Carpenter, Brazilian co-president (left) and Jorge Abraham Maluff, Cuban co-president.

This company churned out and sold over 2 billion cigarettes in 2012, even though its top market overseas –Spain– took a skid as a result of the world financial crisis. However, the company has come up with alternatives to get more international exposé.

2012 was a record-breaking year for BRASCUBA since the company manufactured and sold 2.33 million cigarettes, according to the group’s Cuban co-president, Abraham Maluff. “That posed a major challenge because to achieve that we had to set new record highs in production, storage and sales, not to mention the combined efforts of the entire payroll,” he said. 

Maluff insisted “the most interesting thing is that these figures belong to the domestic market, which has a positive impact on the country’s (Cuba) finances.” The executive said that on the other hand, expectations with the foreign market fell short because the company’s top customer –Spain– is going through great economic hardships that have resulted in over 80 million euros in losses in terms of sales.

“In this market, the brand that has been incredibly growing and increasing its sales as stacked up against others is the Cohiba Original,” he went on to say and added that even though the brand was quite unknown there –potential customers didn’t know it was a cigarette brand– it has little by little getting a lot of acclaim.

In the domestic market, though, H. Upmann has been by far the most coveted cigarette, followed by Popular. 

He explained that within the communication strategies planned for the Popular brand –thought out mostly for the downtrodden Spanish market– a new website was launched with the support of the brand itself, based on the attributes of the Cuban culture and linking the brand to popular music. With this view in mind, the company has picked a motto that reads “It’s Cuban, it’s Popular.”

Plaza

According to BRASCUBA co-president Alexander Carpenter, as the Spanish market was dwindling, the company has been prying into other countries, such as Russia, Egypt, Hong Kong and Mexico, where there’s still a long way to go. “In an effort to raise production for the upcoming 2013-2017 five-year plan, we came up with the idea of producing a cigarette with a clinched market, like Plaza, which is well positioned in Brazil with over a million consumers under its belt,” the executive said.

“The Plaza production accounts for over 180 million in exportable products,” he pointed out. Negotiations are under way to get the certified tax seal required by that market and the company expects to have the first output ready between June and July, set to be shipped in containers to Brazil between July and December.

“In the beginning, since this is a product made with Virginia tobacco, the raw materials have to be imported until we start growing that species in Cuba in a bid to replace those importations,” he added as he referred to the above as one of the policies BRASCUBA will pursue beginning in 2013.

“To make this increase in exportations come true, products must have a good quality-price ratio, and that’s why we’re doing our very best to step up investments that would eventually generate higher outputs,” Mr. Carpenter said.