Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/550331
38 tobaccoasia Tobacco Asia The ONLY magazine written and edited for the Asia regional tobacco industry. Read and trusted by industry professionals around the world. Subscribe to Subscribe Now to Tobacco Asia and get a complete view of the tobacco industry. Rates 1 year $45 2 years $80 3 years $105 Published 5 times a year in full English and Chinese versions. To subscribe visit: tobaccoasia.com or email info@octobermultimedia.com October Inter Co. Ltd. Vanit Building 2, Room 1403A 1126/2 New Petchburi Rd, Bangkok 10400 THAILAND Tel +66 22 55 66 25, Fax +66 26 55 22 11 www.tobaccoasia.com images courtesy of China Tobacco Chuanyu Industrial Co. Ltd. Chuanyu Industrial's Great Wall of China vanilla flavored cigars in smooth touch tin Plenty of potential for growth Locally, China Tobacco Chuanyu Industrial has been dominating the Chinese cigar market for many years, but China and by extension the rest of the region is nevertheless still relatively new territory for the mainly Europe-based traditional manufacturers. Yet the shift towards a more sophisticated smoking experience together with socio-economic changes is encouraging at least some of those companies to intensify their mar- keting activities there – if not immediately, then at least in the foreseeable future. "We will continue to build on the strong rela- tionships we have with our partners in Asia, as this is one of the pillars of our success [in the region]," explained Stormink. "We are planning to increase our distribution in domestic and travel-retail mar- kets and are always trying to obtain the optimal presentation for our products in these markets." Arnold André admits that the company's Asia sales currently only account for less than 2% of global annual sales, but Wiljo van Maren attrib- uted this to two main factors: firstly, his company has had a much longer presence in the Old World cigar markets of Europe, where total turnover is naturally much bigger than in any Asian country, and secondly, the tradition of smoking cigars or cigarillos has at this point not yet been firmly