Partagás (cigar brand)

Partagás is a brand name of cigars that are made by two independent & competing entities, one produced on the island of Cuba for Habanos SA, the Cuban state owned tobacco company; the other, containing no Cuban tobacco, produced in the Dominican Republic for General Cigar Company, a division of Scandinavian Tobacco Group of Denmark. The Cuban version is the original and among the oldest extant cigar brands, established in Havana in 1845.

The Catalan Don Jaime Partagás y Ravell (Arenys de Mar, 1816 Vuelta abajo, Cuba, 1868) was the son of Jaume Partagás (tailor) and Teresa Ravell. He migrated to Cuba in 1831 and worked for Lloret de Mar businessman, Joan Conill in Havana. in Havana (later relocated to Calle Industria), Don Jaime owned many plantations in the Vuelta Abajo tobacco growing region of Cuba. At 6:30p. m. soldiers entered the Partagas fabrica and encountered Ramón Cifuentes Toriello. The old Partagás Factory in Havana, since renamed "Francisco Pérez Germán", was responsible for the production of much of the brand until it was relocated 3 km from Havana Vieja. A new factory now produces most vitolas. Both locations are popular tourist destinations for cigar smokers vacationing in Cuba. The move to the new factory took place on January 2, 2012. In 2002, Altadis bought a controlling share in the Cuban government owned cigar distributor, Habanos SA, and instituted a number of changes in cigar production. Among them was gradually turning the various brands of Cuban cigars to either all handmade or all machine made lines, reducing the number of redundant sizes within a brand, and eliminating many low selling cigars. Many of Partagás lesser known handmade and all machine made cigars were cut from production. Today, all Cuban Partagás cigar vitolas are hand made. Since the introduction of the Edición Limitada annual releases, Partagás has produced a special size almost every year: the Pirámide in 2000, the Serie D No. 3 in 2001, the Serie D No. 2 in 2003, the Serie D No. 1 in 2004, a reissue of the Serie D No. 3 in 2006, and the Serie D No. 5 in 2008. In 2005, Partagás introduced a pyramid, the Serie P No. 2. Partagás also offers two machine made cigarillos, (the Mini and the club), as well as a branded cigarettes.

Following the Cuban Revolution and the seizure of the Partagás factory, the Cifuentes family's patriarch, Ramón Cifuentes Toriello, was initially offered the job of heading Cuba's new state owned tobacco monopoly, but refused and instead emigrated from the country, moving to the United States. After working for years in the cigar industry, Ramon Cifuentes Toriello re launched the brands Partagás and Bolívar cigars with the General Cigar Company, which in 1978 obtained a trademark for the American market. Initial production took place in Jamaica, but the following year production of the revisited brand moved to a modern factory in Santiago, the second largest city of the Dominican Republic. In 1995 the Santiago facility employed approximately 600 workers, who produced cigars bearing both the Partagas and Macanudo labels. Approximately 8 million Partagás cigars were produced by General Cigar Dominicana in that year. A similar trade dress to the Cuban product has been used by General Cigar for its competing version of the Partagás brand, employing a red and gold band scheme, save with the word "Habana" replaced by the date "1845" on the packaging.