General Cigar Company Celebrates Macanudo’s Golden Anniversary

General Cigar Company celebrates 50 years of Macanudo in 2018

 

Fifty years ago, General Cigar Company purchased the Temple Hall cigar factory in Kingston, Jamaica. As part of the deal, General Cigar Company acquired all of Temple Hall’s existing brands, including then little-known Macanudo, a premium cigar brand that Temple Hall made exclusively for the British market. Since that acquisition in 1968, General Cigar Company has turned Macanudo into one of the world’s best-known premium cigar brands, thanks to the foresight of Edgar M. Cullman, General Cigar’s CEO at that time.

Cullman led a group of investors to buy General Cigar Company in 1961. After purchasing Temple Hall seven years later, he commissioned his company to grow Macanudo into the worldwide brand it is today—a journey that has involved some of the most legendary figures in the history of the premium cigar industry.

Spearheading the project was Alfons Mayer, a Dutchman who helped Allied soldiers escape German capture during World War II. After the war, Mayer moved to Argentina to begin selling tobacco with his father. In 1952, Mayer moved to Cuba to learn everything he could about tobacco and making cigars. He joined General Cigar Company and eventually became the company’s top tobacco buyer. Cullman asked him to create a new blend for Macanudo.

With access to the world’s best tobacco, Mayer chose a three-year aged Connecticut wrapper that was grown by General Cigar’s tobacco growing division, Culbro. The new Macanudo blend also included Dominican, Jamaican and Mexican tobaccos to create a cigar with a mild and subtly sweet flavor.

With the blend finished, Cullman then turned to Ramon Cifuentes to make the new Macanudo cigar. Cifuentes had owned the legendary Partagas factory in Cuba before Fidel Castro seized control of the Cuban government and nationalized the country’s cigar industry. Dispossessed of his business and home, Cifuentes began working for General Cigar Company and established meticulous construction and quality-control standards for the new Macanudo cigar. After three years of development, General Cigar Company began selling Macanudo Cafe as “the ultimate cigar” in 1971.

Since Macanudo Cafe’s introduction, the Macanudo brand has grown tremendously, and it is now available in more than 50 countries. With the growth has come evolution. Cullman, Mayer and Cifuentes eventually passed their expertise on to a new generation of General Cigar Company employees, including Daniel Nunez and Benji Menendez—industry legends in their own right—who managed Macanudo’s growth from the 1980s well into the new millennium. In 1983, Macanudo became the leading premium cigar brand in the U.S. That same year, General Cigar Company moved Macanudo’s production to its factory in the Dominican Republic. In 1989, General Cigar Company launched Macanudo Vintage Cabinet Selection, using some tobaccos from 1979. Since then, the company has introduced other vintage Macanudo cigars. In 1996, General Cigar Company opened Club Macanudo in New York City. In 1998 and 1999, General Cigar Company added the Macanudo Robust and Macanudo Maduro line extensions.

In the 2000s, Macanudo continued to evolve, with Nunez and his handpicked successor, Jhonys Diaz. General Cigar Company introduced Macanudo Gold Label—an elegant and mild cigar amid a flush of full-bodied releases from other companies—in 2002. Six year later, the company released Macanudo 1968, bringing a deeper flavor profile to the brand. In 2010, General Cigar Company released Macanudo Cru Royale, expanding the brand’s medium-bodied cigar offerings. In recent years, the company introduced Macanudo Inspirado in international markets and then brought Inspirado to the U.S., where it has enjoyed great success.

“In 2016, we released Macanudo Inspirado in the U.S., and the brand immediately won favor among critics and discerning smokers,” says Regis Broersma, General Cigar Company’s president. “Coupled with a new, modern take on the Macanudo logo, which also launched in 2016, Macanudo is enjoying a significant uptick in global sales. We’re pushing the envelope, and cigar lovers of all levels of experience are being drawn to Macanudo. They are attracted to the brand’s heritage, quality and versatility, and see Macanudo as a cigar that enhances their smoking occasions.”

As part of the 50th anniversary celebration this year, General Cigar Company released its newest Macanudo, the Inspirado Red, in March, thus continuing the evolution of the iconic brand. Before 2018, the Macanudo Inspirado line included Inspirado White, Inspirado Black and Inspirado Orange. Inspirado Red is a bold, full-bodied cigar that features an Ecaudorean Habano ligero wrapper, a Nicaraguan binder grown in the Jalapa Valley and filler tobaccos consisting of 12-year aged Nicaraguan Ometepe, 10-year aged Honduran Jamastran and five-year aged Nicaraguan Esteli tobaccos. Offering strong flavors of pepper and spice, Macanudo Inspirado Red cigars are packaged in 20-count boxes and are available in three sizes: Robusto (5 x 50, box-pressed), Toro (6 x 50) and Gigante (6 x 60).

In addition to Macanudo Inspirado Red’s release, General Cigar Company is rolling out a host of in-store events and promotions that invite retailers and consumers alike to join the celebration and wish Macanudo a happy 50th birthday. General Cigar Company is placing a special commemorative golden guarantee on all boxes of Macanudo cigars made in 2018 and created limited-edition wooden signs and shelf talkers to inform consumers about Macanudo’s 50th anniversary.

The company also began the year with its 50 Days of Macanudo campaign—held from March 12 through May 21—which rewarded consumers who uploaded photos of their most memorable Macanudo moments to the brand’s website (macanudo.com/50) for a chance to win Macanudo branded merchandise. The campaign rewarded brick-and-mortar retailers, too. Any retailer who purchased a Macanudo promotion during the campaign had a chance to win a $500 credit to be used for future Macanudo purchases.

General Cigar Company will also roll out other Macanudo promotions throughout the rest of the year. In terms of new products, Broersma promises a big new release from Macanudo, launching at this year’s International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association show, thus signaling that the brand’s evolution will continue.

“For cigar lovers who have been wowed by the exciting changes we’ve made to Macanudo, I’m here to tell them they haven’t seen anything yet,” he says. “The first 50 years of Macanudo were just the beginning.”

This story first appeared in the July/August 2018 issue of Tobacco Businessmagazine. Members of the tobacco industry are eligible for a complimentary subscription to our magazine. Click here for details.

– By Stephen A. Ross, senior editor of Tobacco Business Magazine.