Friday, January 27 2012
Apparently struck by the economic crisis in Europe, revenues of Habanos S.A. dropped 10.3 percent in 2011, despite a 4-percent rise in sales of Cuban luxury cigars outside the European Union last year, Imperial Tobacco Ltd. said in its 2011 annual report.
The company had reported a 2-percent rise of Cuban luxury cigar sales for the six months ended March 31, 2011.
Even so, the Corporación Habanos S.A. joint venture, of which UK-based Imperial Tobacco holds half, doubled its after-tax profits last year.
According to the annual report, the Habanos joint venture logged in a profit after taxes of 10 million British pounds (US$15.72 million), on revenues of 35 million British pounds in 2011 ($55 million).
That compares to an after-tax profit of 5 million British pounds ($7.8 million), on revenues of 39 million British pounds ($61.3 million) in 2010.“Our luxury Habanos cigar portfolio has again delivered another good performance,” Imperial said in its annual report.
According to the report, which did not provide a breakdown of Cuban cigar sales, they rose at a particularly brisk pace in Russia, Brazil and China, partly thanks to new limited editions of Cohiba- and Montecristo-brand cigars. The report did not talk about cigar revenues in European Union markets.
Through the Habanos joint venture with Cuban state company CubaTabaco, Imperial Tobacco has the worldwide marketing monopoly for Cuban premium cigars.
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