Oettinger Davidoff AG celebrated this year's TFWA World
Exhibition in Cannes with 300 luminaries from across the world of travel
retail. And there was lots to celebrate.
The Swiss cigar specialist jointly hosted the now-legendary
Masters’ Evening with Belgian chocolatier Neuhaus and Nicaraguan rum brand Flor
de Caña. Guests enjoyed a culinary soirée with hors d’oeuvres, pralines and
chocolates and rum-based cocktails. Davidoff’s new cigar line, Yamasá, which
celebrated a new earthy-spicy-sweet experience, was highly appreciated by the
invited aficionados, who included Philippe Schaus, Chairman and CEO of
world-leading travel retailer DFS Group.
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| Distinguished guests at Davidoff Masters' Evening in Cannes |
New benchmark store opens in mainland China
MJ Rabbit spoke with Oettinger Davidoff CEO Hans-Kristian
Hoejsgaard at the TFWA show in early October, where the firm introduced its
brand-building Discovery Experience on an impressive new stand. This year, it’s
all about the Chinese consumer, thanks to the company’s acquisition of a
majority in Bluebell Cigars Asia and its joint-venture collaboration with
Sparkle Roll Group, which is distributing its cigars and accessories in China.
The new partnership is going very well, says Hoejsgaard. “We’ve just seen the
first fruits of our collaboration two weeks ago. A full-concept flagship retail
space opened on September 4 at the Oriental Plaza mall in downtown Beijing.
This is a benchmark store for the Davidoff brand.”
To mark the store opening, Davidoff is hosting a number of
events in restaurants and bars and has linked up with the Johnnie Walker Houses
in Beijing and Shanghai. Pairing events that match cigars with whisky, rum and
Cognac are also being held.
Speaking about Chinese tastes, Hoejsgaard notes that this
demographic group generally enjoys bigger and stronger cigars than the
Americans. The sales mix is proving similar to the US and Europe, with
Perfecto, Robusto and Toro formats proving popular. Hoejsgaard is seeing the
global trend for shorter cigars also happening in China. Davidoff’s consumer
research has found that enjoying a cigar is aspirational and a sign of success.
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| Top-end presentation: Davidoff Royal Release box of 10 cigars |
Chinese New Year
gifting
For the Chinese New Year of the Rooster in 2017, Davidoff
will launch a limited edition of 10 cigars in gift packaging, which will be launched
in key airports. Some 8,000 boxes are available worldwide, retailing at around
$400 per box.
A new family of accessories is also being introduced for
Chinese New Year, featuring a leather cigar case and a double blade cutter.
China is a “vastly bigger” accessories market than other regions, observes
Hoejsgaard, adding that the amount of shelf space devoted to accessories is
much bigger in the Chinese market because the number of cigars permitted to be
sold is smaller. “Over 50% of our sales are accessories, compared to 10% in the
rest of the world,” he says.
As elsewhere in the world, the Chinese love the sense of
ritual and ceremony around enjoying cigars. Davidoff recently unveiled a global
social media campaign under the tagline #myritual, which aims to bring together
cigar aficionados in their shared rituals associated with cigars.
So what about the opportunities presented by the Chinese
consumer today? “The Chinese market is the single biggest opportunity in years
to come – they are an incredibly important customer in travel retail,” he
enthuses, adding that 45% of the company’s business comes from mainland Chinese
visitors. Hoejsgaard also cites the example of the Davidoff store in
Lucerne, Switzerland – a popular tourist destination for the Chinese traveller
– where 2-3% of customers are Chinese, and yet they account for over 15% of its
business in the store.
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| Davidoff Royal Release ashtray |
The unveiling of
Royal Release cigars and accessories
Next month (November) sees the introduction of Davidoff’s
new Royal Release cigars and accessories, a top-end presentation featuring 10
cigars handmade with rare tobaccos in a royal blue lacquered box. Two formats
are available, Salomones and Robusto. The cigars retail at between $80 and $100.
The Royal Release lighter is manufactured by ST Dupont using
a 500-stage quality controlled process, while the royal blue ashtray is
mouth-blown by Murano glass blowers.
Lastly, in other travel retail news, Davidoff will open a
new walk-in humidor at Paris Charles de Gaulle Terminal 2E in January 2017.
