The man in the cigar
The man behind the cigar is Heinrich Villiger. Such great expertise and so much love for the product „Cuban cigar“ is very impressive. Zigarren.Zone produced a short film in 2019 to mark the 30th anniversary of 5TH Avenue. 5TH Avenue is the official importer of Cuban cigars for Germany, Austria and Poland. There used to be many importers of Cuban cigars in these countries. The former distribution company „Cubatabaco“ dramatically reorganised distribution. That was in 1989.
The short film ~ A crisp 12 minutes of history
The short film „The Man in the Cigar“ spans the years: 1970s, 1989, 2001 and 2019. Three actors tell an impressive and exciting story about why 5TH Avenue sold luxury products by mail order before 1989, why the company decided to focus on Cuban cigars in 1989, how a new course was set in 2001 and how the company is doing in 2019. The three actors are Heinrich Villiger, Barbara Leyva de la Torre and Christoph A. Puszkar.
The first joint venture between a state-owned tobacco company from Cuba and an importer
Before the Castro revolution, the Cuban cigar brands all had their own sales organisations. After the revolution, all cigar producers were nationalised. They were incorporated into the state-owned company Cubatabaco. Cubatabaco now had the logistical problem that the brands all had different import taxes per country. The president of Cubatabaco at the time, Francisco Padron, wanted to change this. He wanted to simplify things. He invited all importers from Europe to Zurich. That was around 1987.
The deal looked like this: There would only be one importer per country and Cubatabaco wanted to have a 50% stake in the company. The importers were all independent companies and rejected this idea. Heinrich Villiger ran 5TH Avenue Products at the time. This was a trading company. It sold products in the luxury segment by mail order. It was a direct marketing company. They also had cigars on offer. The aim of 5TH Avenue was to improve the image of cigars. At that time, the luxury product was no longer so popular in Germany.
Heinrich Villiger recognised the potential in Mr Padron's idea. As Villiger had been doing good business with Cuba for decades, he seized the opportunity. Almost the entire previous 5TH Avenue range was liquidated. From one day to the next, so to speak, „only“ Cuban cigars could be bought at 5TH Avenue; however, it was not the end consumer who could buy them, but the cigar retailers.
5TH Avenue was the first joint venture company to enter into this partnership with the Cuban state-owned company Cubatabaco. After Heinrich Villiger took this bold step and proved how well it worked, other importing countries gradually followed suit.
The man in the cigar - the short film and its actors
In the short film Heinrich Villiger impressively how all this came about. The following also have their say Barbara Leyva de la Torre and Christoph A. Puszkar.
Barbara Leyva de la Torre. Since then, the Cubans have sent their employees to work for the importers from time to time. They stayed for several years. Barbara Leyva de la Torre worked in the finance department of Cubataco at the time (later at the new distribution company Habanos S.A.). She has already worked briefly at 5TH Avenue and has now been here for four years since autumn 2018. She is now Commercial Manager at 5TH Avenue and is responsible for purchasing. She has also previously worked at Intertabak AG, the Swiss importer of Cuban cigars.
Christoph A. Puszkar. He joined 5TH Avenue Products in 2001. He already loved Cuban cigars back then. And so it was almost a hobby for him to be able to do the marketing for Cuban cigars. Today he is head of marketing at 5TH Avenue.
The concept of the short film
In the intro you are transported back to the 1960s. You are sitting in front of an old TV set, so to speak. It is produced in black and white and the film contains picture disturbances; Heinrich Villiger explains in a few short sentences how the Habanos connoisseur „ticks“. The sound also sounds „old“.
The transition to the 1970s Years shows technology focal points; the flowing technology photos are intentionally a little jerky. This scene was produced with a 35mm filter. The image is a little grainy, just as the films were produced back then.
The transition to the 1989 The second year again shows technology focal points. The image of this scene is now significantly „sharper“ and the colours are somewhat „darker and more saturated“.
The transition to the year 2001 also shows technology centres of gravity. The image of this scene is somewhat „softer“ in colour.
The transition into 2019 shows technology highlights one last time. The image of this scene has not been reworked, but shows pure Full HD exactly as it was recorded.
More about Heinrich Villiger >
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Thank you for a timeless document! It never ceases to amaze me to see Heinrich Villiger literally bubbling over with dedication.
Amazing, isn't it!
A really great video with a lot of information that you might not otherwise get. Keep up the good work Vasilij.
Thank you ❤️
Great video, short and crisp with good interviews that were very interesting in terms of content - compliments
Thank you very much ?
I thought the content of the film was very good. I didn't think the transitions were so good. On the whole, I was very enthusiastic and had fun watching the film.
I always enjoy listening to Mr Villiger - thank you for this new opportunity!
Nice and informative short film about the Villiger beginnings.
Keep up the good work....
Really a very, very informative short film. Great.
Super interesting and informative short film. Keep up the good work !
I can only thank this interesting man for his self-sacrificing work, which allows me to enjoy my favourite pastime.
Heinrich Villiger, or, «A life for a leaf»
Informative and very well done. Great background knowledge presented in an easily understandable way.
I would like to see more short films like this. Thank you for that!
The report shows once again that Heinrich Villiger is probably one of the best connoisseurs of Cuban cigars.
A nice exciting short film by Mr Villiger and his employees. Mr Villiger is right “ A cigar lover stays true to his Cuban cigars “. There is nothing better . Not to forget the storage of Cuban cigars and tasting them every two to three years until they have reached their peak and are perfectly smokeable, that is pure passion. For me personally, cigars taste best between 7 and 10 years old. That is pure pleasure. For example, a Montecristo A after 15 years is a pleasure that cannot be described in words. Just try storing Cuban cigars for a long time.
Exciting story(s). Also visually well presented.
I watched the report with great interest. For me, this report was very informative and very well made. This film has motivated me to enjoy Cuban cigars more again. Thank you very much.
Well done report with exciting background information. More of this would be nice
Exciting and well-made film, especially the time jumps: it wasn't so long ago that Cuban cigars were a luxury good that was hard to come by! One more reason to savour them consciously.
I enjoy success, great cigars, good people.... all this is the case at Villiger..... I hope it goes on like this for a long time....
Many thanks for the interesting summary about Heinrich Villiger and 5th Avenue. You always learn something new, and about his judgement
„For my part, I can only agree with the idea of “getting stuck„ with your “own" Cuban cigar brand
Through my many years of AD activity at Gebr. Heinemann GmbH Hamburg, from 1977 to 2010, I had somewhat different experiences about the development of long filler cigars. .
But as I am retired, it is no longer my place to give my opinion.
I would like to emphasise that I still hold Mr Heinrich Villiger and his influence on the market in high regard today!
It always makes me happy to see the intuition with which people have done things. The nice thing is that many of them still do it.
As I am lucky enough to know some producers and importers myself, I think I know that my love of cigars has never gone away. That's where my passion comes from, it's always genuine, never fashionable.
Greetings
Don
„The Havana smoker is a „stubborn head“ who doesn't look to the left or right to see what else is out there and sticks to it...“ ...hahahaha, I don't think Mr Villiger has got that quite right. I may be misinterpreting his statement, in which case I don't want to have said anything and I apologise. I would say that after a period of „smoking through the countries“, many people eventually get stuck with Habanos...and then Mr Villiger's statement applies again. Until now, I was not aware that Cubatabaco (or the Cuban state) is a 50% shareholder in the respective exclusive distribution companies of Habano's cigars and that
Habanos S.A. once again in between, interesting.
This is typical Vasilij, short film with a lot of information from someone who has cigars in his blood. Superbly done . ?
I think the film is well made, entertaining, lots of information in a short time.
Very informative, entertaining and crisply produced..... Vasilij quality, top?
Excitingly made and very interesting. Especially the different characters
Super film, very well made short film! Hold Vasilij quality! ?
Thank you very much! ❤️