 |
CAO International President Tim Ozgener (left) and Henri Wintermans Group Commercial Director Frank de Kok (right) explain their plans to grow the CAO name in travel retail |
NETHERLANDS/US. Dutch tobacco supplier Henri Wintermans Cigars and its sister company, premium cigar manufacturer CAO International, teamed up at Cannes to showcase the latest products in their portfolio to travel retailers. CAO International was acquired by Henri Wintermans parent ST Group earlier this year.
Henri Wintermans Group Commercial Director Frank de Kok told The Moodie Report: “The CAO business is an important one for us. We want to build strong brands and CAO is a terrific brand. It adds a premium cigar range to our portfolio and with its US distribution it will give our core Café Crème range a platform to develop in North America.”
CAO International President Tim Ozgener said: “In the US we have a great relationship with tobacconists and excellent distribution, and that’s because we make high-quality products. Outside the Cubans this is the only brand to have ten different cigars with ratings of 90 or more from Cigar Aficionado magazine, which is a big statement.”
Ozgener added: “We wanted CAO to have more global exposure. Henri Wintermans is in 120 countries and can give us that.”
Using the Henri Wintermans network, CAO’s cigars will be relaunched in Europe and introduced to international travel retail. The key products will be the premium, high-quality packaged CAO Vision, The Sopranos edition (made for the TV series), plus Bella Vanilla and Moontrance flavoured versions.
“It’s really a new niche, the “˜premiumisation’ of the flavoured cigar segment,” said Ozgener. “We’ll look at those markets where flavoured cigars or cigarillos are already popular, such as Germany or Italy, and we’ll target those in travel retail. We believe there’s room for high-end flavoured cigars in this channel.”
Flavoured five- and three-packs have been developed for travel retail and will be available from December 2007.
CAO is considered one of the cigar industry’s most innovative manufacturers. As well as using tobacco from traditional sources such as the Dominican Republic, Honduras and Nicaragua, it also produces premium cigars from Brazilian and Italian tobacco.
CAO was founded in 1968 as a pipe manufacturer and diversified into cigars in 1996.
MORE STORIES ON HENRI WINTERMANS
Henri Wintermans to showcase new packaging and complete cigar range in Cannes – 26/09/07
