{"id":23921,"date":"2018-11-02T13:29:31","date_gmt":"2018-11-02T12:29:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/?p=23921"},"modified":"2018-11-05T11:48:13","modified_gmt":"2018-11-05T10:48:13","slug":"under-new-management-oliva-cigar-family-has-big-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/under-new-management-oliva-cigar-family-has-big-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"Under New Management \u2013 Oliva Cigar Family Has Big Plans"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI still feel like it\u2019s mine, like it\u2019s part of me, and hopefully I will be around for many years to come.\u201d Gilberto Oliva sits, cigar in hand, in the Oliva Cigar Company office in Estel\u00ed. We\u2019re talking about the company he\u2019s worked for and owned together with his siblings, Jos\u00e9, Carlos, and Jeannie<\/a>, for more than 20 years. That is until 2016, when Fred Vandermarliere took over ownership<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been our life, but the family was growing, we all have kids now and different members had different interests,\u201d he says. Today only two of them, Gilberto and Jos\u00e9, are involved in the business. \u201cI\u2019m very involved in the growing part and the blending, on a consultant basis, but Frederik (Vandermarliere, CEO of J. Cort\u00e8s) makes me feel like I\u2019m still part of it. Tobacco is my life. I breathe, eat, and sleep tobacco.\u201d Jos\u00e9 has continued as the CEO; it remains to be seen for how long.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very important for us that Jos\u00e9 and Gilberto stayed,\u201d says Frederik Vandermarliere. \u201cJos\u00e9 is not going to stay on forever, but in order for us to get to know the company better, keep the family spirit and the knowledge, I wanted him and Gilberto here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEven when Jos\u00e9 steps out as CEO he will probably stay on the board,\u201d Brian Shapiro, director of International Sales at Oliva Cigars, says. \u201cMaintaining the name of Oliva is paramount to Frederik, because it\u2019s such a prominent name and something he wants to protect. The idea is not just to buy what\u2019s great about a company today, but also what\u2019s going to be great about it years from now. Changing the culture or the perception of the company would be counterproductive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"OIliva<\/p>\n

Gilberto Oliva remains in the company. He’s the man behind almost all of their brands. | Photo: Simon Lundh<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Selling was not an easy decision<\/h3>\n

This wasn\u2019t the first time the Olivas were approached by other companies, but according to Gilberto Oliva it\u2019s never felt quite right before. \u201cThe idea of selling has always been there, but when it came to crunch time we always bailed out. It hasn\u2019t been about the money, but how they would manage the brand. We\u2019ve put many years of work into building this brand, and we hoped for a family-oriented company to buy it and not a corporation. When something\u2019s not yours anymore you still want to see it move on and do well. It\u2019s our family name after all, and sometimes with corporations it\u2019s all about numbers. There\u2019s no passion behind it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shapiro adds that having Frederik acquire the company insures a legacy for the Oliva name. That may not have been guaranteed, had it been one of the big cigar companies. Vandermeliere maintains that his main goal is to make sure the quality of the product and the brand recognition remains intact. Nevertheless, all this doesn\u2019t mean that selling was an easy decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first time I walked into the factory and I was no longer the owner, it was tough,\u201d Oliva says. \u201cBut being as involved as I am, it has been a lot easier than I thought.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growing together<\/h3>\n

\u201cThe center for long fillers will be in Miami and Nicaragua and the short fillers here in Belgium,\u201d Vandermeliere says. \u201cWe will use each other\u2019s knowledge. It\u2019s better than trying to mix it. A lot of long filler producers experience difficulties in Europe because they\u2019re used to selling to the US. Here, the laws are different and we have experience with that. From the Oliva side there\u2019s a lot of tobacco knowledge that can help us, so we need to work together and keep on producing a world-class product in Nicaragua. The people who know most about that are the people over there, so we wouldn\u2019t send a Belgian guy to run the factory in Nicaragua.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"OIliva<\/p>\n

Oliva brings a lot of tobacco knowledge into the merger. „The people who know most about that are the people over there.“ | Photo: Simon Lundh<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Two families with a couple of hundred years of history have been combined. They both have influence on every side of the tobacco world. \u201cIt\u2019s opened up doors,\u201d Shapiro says. \u201cThe Cort\u00e8ses have tremendous contacts. They\u2019ve been doing duty free for years and we\u2019ve had difficulties getting into that market. We just signed a deal to start selling Olivas in Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris and at the same time I\u2019ve formed an agreement with Duty Free Americas to carry J. Cort\u00e8s.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Shapiro, the brand has already grown substantially in Europe the last few years. \u201cIt\u2019s still a long and arduous process because the non-Cuban sector was starting at such a low level. It\u2019s not about selling your brand, you\u2019re changing a culture. It\u2019s very difficult to make people understand there are great wines outside of France; same with cigars. It\u2019s not the fault of the consumer. All they had access to for generations were Cuban cigars. I don\u2019t want to be morbid, but as the older generation begins to pass on, we will have a generation with a much broader perspective on what\u2019s out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vandermeliere adds that, especially in Europe, they want to convince more people to put Cuban cigars aside and try something else. \u201cWe want to be one of the references of handmade cigars in Europe.\u201d A step towards that might be their newest launch, which carries the same name as Oliva\u2019s first creation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve reinvented the brand Gilberto Oliva, with a different wrapper and packaging,\u201d Oliva says. \u201cIt\u2019s a medium-bodied cigar with a lot of flavor to capture the masses. In the US, mild cigars sell the most, so we\u2019ve tried to create a mild cigar with a lot of aroma that will stand out in that field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever happens with the company in the future remains to be seen, but it seems like the name Oliva won\u2019t be going away anytime soon, and the man behind the blends will still be Gilberto Oliva. \u201cFrederik has the last call, but I\u2019m sure Oliva\u2019s going to be around. I will be involved as long as Frederik wants me to be, and I hope to be part of this and take the company to the next level,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With a new driver behind the wheel, Oliva Cigar Company will continue to create great cigars. The only difference is, it will be for a bigger market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":23924,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[177,49,2808,44],"tags":[2600,2492,2601,2599,5586],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23921"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}