Importer Hunters & Frankau has declined to comment.

A 50% drop in Cuban cigar deliveries since the start of the year. A de facto rationing reported by most UK cigar retailers we contacted over the past few hours, following an article published by Cigar Inspector, a website owned by the Dominique London group, which operates several cigar shops in the UK.

“It varies, but a 50% cut [compared with the original order] isn’t unheard of,” said the manager of a London cigar shop, speaking on condition of anonymity. “No explanation on or off the record,” the same source added, noting — like others — that deliveries have worsened significantly since early January. “The supply have been reduced, got to be cautious,” another retailer told us.

 

VegaFina: imports blocked

At the same time, due to UK sanctions against Chen Zhi, “VegaFina imports from the United Kingdom are currently prohibited,” a source within Tabacalera SLU’s communication tam — owner of the Dominican brand — told L’Amateur.

Sanctions against Chen Zhi and his assets were imposed jointly by US and UK authorities last October. Hunters & Frankau can therefore no longer import VegaFina cigars produced by Tabacalera de García, the Dominican factory whose parent company, based in the British Virgin Islands, is on a sanctions blacklist.

The UK cigar retailers we contacted said they had received no written or verbal communication from Hunters & Frankau regarding either VegaFina or Cuban cigar allocations.

Contacted repeatedly by L’Amateur, Hunters & Frankau declined to comment on both issues.

 

A sanctioned shareholder

Although Cuba’s situation remains severely affected by the energy crisis — and global supply shortages have persisted for five years — the European distributors we consulted report no recent deterioration in deliveries, nor any warning from Habanos S.A. regarding the coming months.

Hunters & Frankau is the only Habanos importer operating in a country that has sanctioned one of its indirect shareholders, who is also a shareholder of its main supplier.

Asked whether any sanctions had been imposed on the distributor, the UK Treasury’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) declined to comment, stating that it never discusses individual cases. By way of “background,” it noted that asset freezes and certain financial services restrictions “apply to entities owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by a sanctioned person.” In principle, Hunters & Frankau should not be affected given Chen Zhi’s minority stake, but the company’s silence combined with slowing deliveries raises questions.

According to local trade media, Cuban cigars accounted for 77% of the UK cigar market by value in 2024. And according to our information, VegaFina represents less than 5% of Hunters & Frankau’s revenue.

 

Laurent Mimouni (with Guillaume Renouard, London correspondent)