Partagás (cigar brand)

Partagás is among the oldest extant brands of cigars, established in Havana in 1845. The name is used today by two independent and 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 Catalan Don Jaime Partagás y Ravelo (Arenys de Mar, 1816 - Vuelta abajo, Cuba, 1868) was the son of Jaume Partagás (tailor) and Teresa Ravelo. He migrated to Cuba in 1831 and worked for Lloret de Mar businessman, Joan Conill in Havana. Establishing his own factory, La Flor de Tabacas de Partagás in 1845, at 1 Cristina St. in Havana (later relocated to Calle Industria), Don Jaime owned many of the best plantations in the Vuelta Abajo tobacco-growing region of Cuba. Don Jaime's ability to choose from among the finest tobaccos on the island, and an instinct for blending and fermenting tobaccos made the brand incredibly successful. Don Jaime is also legendarily credited with hiring one of the first lectors to read to and entertain the cigar rollers as they worked.

Don Jaime was murdered on one of his plantations in 1868 and his son José Partagás took over the business. Later the factory and brand were sold to banker José A. Bances. In 1899, Bances invited Ramón Cifuentes Llano (1854-1938), a talented tabaquero from Ribadesella Spain – to join him as partner. Bances sold his remaining shares to Cifuentes the following year. Cifuentes took over management of Partagás with José Fernández López and was joined in 1916 by the Galician vegas owner and leaf wholesaler, Francisco Pego Pita, who in turn sold the company to Cifuentes, Fernández y Cía in 1900. In 1916, Don José Fernández left the firm and Ramón Cifuentes Llano joined with Francisco Pego Pita to form Cifuentes, Pego y Cía. In 1927, it acquired the rights to the Ramón Allones brand; at some unknown point the factory began to produce a brand in its own name, Cifuentes.

Ramón Cifuentes Llano died in 1938 and Pego in 1940, leaving his three sons in charge of Partagas. Ramón Cifuentes Toriello and his two brothers continued to build the increasingly prestigious factory and brand, and renamed the company Cifuentes y Cía. In 1954, the Cifuentes family acquired the Bolívar and La Gloria Cubana brands from José F. Rocha and moved their production to the Cifuentes factory. By 1958 Partagás was second only to the H. Upmann company in exporting Cuban cigars, accounting for over a quarter of all exported tobacco goods.

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