Hundreds of guests descended on Oettinger Davidoff AG’s
Master’s Evening during the TFWA World exhibition in Cannes to enjoy a night of
cigar pleasure. For this year's party, Fauchon, Flor de Caña, Neuhaus and Davidoff
invited 300 guests to the Plage du Festival on the city’s famous Croisette. In
the spirit of "Time Beautifully Filled" – Davidoff’s marketing
tagline – the guests enjoyed a culinary soirée with delicious pralines and
chocolates, Madeleines, typical French fingerfood and excellent sweet and spicy
rum cocktails. Davidoff’s new Brazilian cigar line, Escurio, was celebrated
with an exciting sensory experience inspired by the rhythms, intrigue and rich
culture of a night in Rio de Janeiro.
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| Davidoff CEO Hans-Kristian Hoejsgaard |
Gaining market share
After the party, MJ Rabbit caught up with Davidoff’s CEO
Hans-Kristian Hoejsgaard to find out how the company is faring in the world of
luxury cigars. Although upbeat in general, Hoejsgaard admits that times are
tougher this year compared to 2014. “It’s clear that it’s not as rosy as last
year but we are doing better than our competitors and we are gaining market
share. But it’s not as robust as 2014. We’ve had a good run with new launches.
Our retail footprint has expanded and that has helped. The category is not
growing, but the success of our retail concept has a category effect.”
Hoejsgaard and his team are looking forward to opening
Davidoff’s seventh humidor in travel retail, in Frankfurt – the first such
installation outside Zurich and its first in the European Union. The 15sq m walk-in
humidor, operated in collaboration with its “long-standing and important”
partner Gebr Heinemann, will begin trading in December 2015. To mark the
opening, Davidoff has created a Heinemann Travel Retail Limited Cigar Edition
that will be for sale in the new humidor. And for visitors who don’t own a
humidor, there will be a chance to win one after the opening. The company’s 40-year
partnership with Heinemann has been particularly successful in Hong Kong and
Zurich, adds Hoejsgaard, and he believes it has given the entire category a
boost.
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| A rendering of the new walk-in humidor at Frankfurt airport |
Dubai Duty Free promotion
Another new project that Hoejsgaard is excited about is a
retail space offering a selection of Davidoff cigars in the VIP area of Munich airport.
In terms of potential new markets, Hoejsgaard has earmarked
the Middle East as the next target region for development, in addition to the brand’s
more established markets such as Asia, Europe and New York.
In December 2015, the company is staging a promotion at
Dubai International Airport for its new Escurio cigar, having been given a
“wonderful, fantastic space” by Dubai Duty Free, where Davidoff can build on
its success. Other successful promotions have taken place in Frankfurt and
Hamburg airports this year. At the latter airport, Davidoff now has a backwall
space, giving increased brand visibility.
Turning to the subject of Cuba, Hoejsgaard declares
“Davidoff is ready to return” to the market, but believes the earliest date for
that eventuality would be 2019, depending on the next US President. Hoejsgaard
explains that Davidoff left the market in 1989 because of quality issues, so the
company has three conditions before it returns: Davidoff must be in charge of
growing its own tobacco; it must control the rolling of the final product; and it must be responsible for quality control.
