Basel, Switzerland, 19 June 2019 – Oettinger Davidoff further strengthened its position as a leading supplier in the global premium cigar market and increased sales of its own brand cigars by 6.3% in 2018. The total turnover for the 2018 financial year remained stable at CHF 500 million (-0.2% compared to the previous year). The process optimisation measures initiated by the new management as part of the “Way Forward” transformation programme are showing positive results and have led to further operational improve-ments.

The celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the Davidoff brand and the innovative product launches further strengthened Oettinger Davidoff’s own brand business in 2018. The Davidoff brand recorded an increase of 4.6% compared to the previous year, while AVO Cigars recorded a stellar year with an increase of 15.6%. Camacho Cigars also regained momentum in 2018 and achieved growth of 7.4% compared to 2017.

Investment in retail and in new brand and shopping experiences

Surprising customers with new and innovative brand and shopping experiences remains a key priority for Oettinger Davidoff. In the last year, the company opened licensed boutique stores in Brooklyn, New York (USA) and in Nanning (China), as well as Davidoff walk-in humidors at the airports in Zurich, Geneva, Moscow, Hong Kong and Guangzhou. Additional Davidoff walk-in hu-midors are to follow in 2019, the first of which was inaugurated this spring at Istanbul Airport, and two more to follow at Shanghai and Beijing airports. The company will also open an additional franchise store in Shenzhen, China, and is planning another licensed boutique in the USA this fall. In the commercial area, the key priority will continue to be to gain market shares in the main markets, above all in the USA, Asia, Germany and Switzerland. The company also intends to expand its business in England, Spain, Russia and the Middle East, and to address and build on the untapped opportunities in America. In the GTR (Global Travel Retail) segment, Oettinger Da-vidoff aims to drive growth at the world’s leading airports through important relationships with global and regional partners. Oettinger Davidoff is currently developing new e-commerce oppor-tunities to suit changing purchasing behaviour – keyword digitalisation. A. Dürr & Co. AG, the Swiss retail company of Oettinger Davidoff, launched an online shop for Swiss customers at da-vidoffgeneva.ch on 11 June this year.

“Crop to Shop” philosophy as a cornerstone of corporate responsibility

With its “Crop to Shop” philosophy, the company is pursuing the vertical integration of the entire value chain enabling the analysis, control and monitoring of all stages of work, from the tobacco seed to delivery of the hand-rolled premium cigar to retail. The aim is to continue to optimise this value chain in the long term and to continuously adapt it to the industry’s and markets’ changing regulatory requirements. This is the only way to ensure the premium quality, consistency and worldwide availability of our products in the long term.

Building on the leading position in the premium cigar business with the “Way Forward Transformation Roadmap”

Last year, the global management team, which was newly constituted at the beginning of 2018 by CEO Beat Hauenstein, defined further benchmarks for business growth and operational im-provements as part of the five-year “Way Forward” transformation programme. The “Way For-ward” Transformation Roadmap is based on four pillars and covers the areas of brand, commer-cial, efficiency and leadership. A new management team is also in place at the US subsidiary in Tampa, “Davidoff of Geneva USA”, and is working on further focusing its entrepreneurial activi-ties. “With our five-year plan, we want to secure and further expand our leading position in the premium handmade cigar and wholesale business in order to continue delivering our premium promise to our customers and partners worldwide and delight and surprise our aficionados with innovative cigar blends,” says Beat Hauenstein, CEO of Oettinger Davidoff.

About Oettinger Davidoff

Oettinger Davidoff Group, with sales of approximately 500 million Swiss francs and 3,600 em-ployees around the world, traces its roots back to 1875 and remains family-owned to this day. The company is dedicated to the business of producing, marketing, distributing and retailing pre-mium-branded cigars, tobacco products and accessories. The premium-branded cigar business includes Davidoff, AVO, Camacho, Cusano, Griffin’s, Private Stock, Zino and Zino Platinum. Oettinger Davidoff Group is also the sole agent of many brands in several countries such as Haribo in Switzerland and S.T. Dupont in the USA. Its business is anchored in a strong “crop-to-shop” philosophy, having pursued vertical integration from the tobacco fields in the Dominican Republic, Honduras and Nicaragua to its global network of around 75 Davidoff Flagship Stores and strong appointed merchants.