The technological leadership status of the Great Wall cigar brand of China Tobacco Chuanyu Industrial Corporation (CTCIC) in southwest China – renowned as China’s leading cigar brand – has proven to be the mainstay supporting the subsistence and business development of this regional tobacco manufacturer.

Over recent years, China’s cigar industry has made great progress in business development, and has become a major new force in domestic tobacco markets.

CTCIC, manufacturer of Great Wall brand cigars, has actively sought international strategic cooperation partners and has strived to advance its cigar production technology to higher levels.

By pursuing the policy of “bringing in” and “going out” in international cooperation, CTCIC has introduced advanced production technology and technical know-how from leading transnational tobacco giants. Through ongoing technological innovation and independent research and development, the regional tobacco manufacturer has seen its Great Wall cigars take a lion’s share of the domestic cigar market while convincing the rest of the world that both the Great Wall cigar brand and China’s cigar market have vast potential for future development.

As the leading domestic cigar manufacturer, CTCIC utilizes unique cigar production technology. Over recent years, the corporation has developed different specifications and styles of mild and moist cigar products. Today, CTCIC manufactures a large variety of cigar products, including handmade long-core cigars with original tobacco aroma, machine-made short-core cigars with coordinated original tobacco aroma and multiple fragrances and machine-made aromatic mini cigars. 

CTCIC cigar products are “in various styles of aroma, with mild and natural fragrances, with a mild and gentle mouth feel and with a moist aftertaste”, according to the corporation. 

Through many years of operation, CTCIC has developed, inherited or innovated unique and highly efficient cigar production technologies and methodologies through which it has formed a relatively powerful technological advantage.

In efforts to guarantee consistent quality of its cigar products and to reduce excessive reliance on the supply of raw materials from a specific region, CTCIC purchases different grades of leaf tobacco for making cigar cores from different suppliers. It annually changes suppliers annually and only buys a small quantity from each. In particular, Altadis USA and Royal Dutch Agio Cigars, though their respective cooperative arrangements with CTCIC have both extended great support in supplying raw materials for the development of new products and helping to improve existing products. 

As a result, CTCIC is now using high-quality leaf tobacco from Indonesia, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Ecuador, the US, Philippines and other countries for making cigars, enriching aromas of its products and enabling the corporation to produce cigars with tobacco, coffee, vanilla, cherry and other flavors. 

In 2009, CTCIC embarked on a project of technological transformation and relocation. When this project is completed, the Great Wall Cigar Factory (GWCF) of CTCIC will have become the largest cigar manufacturing base in Asia integrating the functions of tobacco cultivation, research and development and world-class production techniques. By then, it will also have become the premier domestic cigar manufacturer in terms of production equipment. Fulfillment of the project will contribute to upgrading the production technology and providing powerful equipment support to GWCF.

GWCF has taken the lead in the domestic cigar-manufacturing sector with its advanced production technology. It applies seven important core technologies to produce its Great Wall cigars, including four patented at the National Patent Office. The comprehensive application of these core technologies plays a role in lowering the tar content, improving tincture, making the taste mild, increasing aroma, making the smoke less stimulating and creating great looking packaging, thereby enhancing the quality of Great Wall cigars. GWCF has been authorized to lead the work of formulating technological standards for cigar production in acknowledgement of the great achievements it has made in technological research and development.

Although GWCF has taken the lead in developing domestic cigar production technology and brands, it has not been content to rest on its laurels. This is because it knows clearly that if it wishes to gain greater grounds for future development, it has to keep improving and promoting its production technology. 

Not satisfied with its status as the leading cigar manufacturer in China, GWCF is preparing to challenge the world’s top cigar manufacturers. This means that GWCF has to learn the sophisticated production technologies of the world’s top cigarette manufacturers and strengthen its capacity through the application of newly acquired technology.

 “Under great support and strategic guidance by the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (STMA), CTCIC has gone up to a higher level and has entered a new stage in the development of cigar products,” said deputy general manager Wu Gang, who is in charge of CTCIC’s cigar production discussing the acquisition of first-rate know-how and sophisticated technology from the world’s top cigar manufacturers. “If we wish to keep developing and upgrading the overall capacity of cigarette production, we must embark on the path of international cooperation and introduce advanced technology and know-how to meet the growing market demand in China. Only by doing so can we develop first-rate new cigar brands with Chinese characteristics.”

After conducting intensive investigation and research, GWCF eventually chose Altadis USA – which controls the lion’s share of the global cigar market – and Royal Dutch Agio Cigars, a highly successful 100-year old cigar manufacturer, as its international cooperation partners.

The project of cooperation between GWCF and Royal Dutch Agio Cigars was the first project of Sino-foreign cooperation in cigar production approved by STMA. The two sides are cooperating fully with the emphasis on technological development. Royal Dutch Agio Cigars agrees to provide technological consultation services for the technological upgrade of GWCF, to extend full-scale support to GWCF in the acquisition of special equipment and to assist it in developing and designing medium- and high-grade machine-made cigar products. 

Meanwhile, GWCF will get involved in Agio’s establishment of leaf tobacco production bases in other parts of the world. 

On February 8, 2010, the two sides signed an agreement on specific cooperation in Chengdu City of Sichuan province in southwest China, signifying the start of the first Sino-foreign cooperation in cigar production. The two sides have started substantial cooperation in the supply of raw materials for producing cigars, the research and development of new products, technological improvement of existing products and the technological renovation of the cigar factory.

Meanwhile, CTCIC and Altadis USA signed a framework agreement on technological cooperation under which the two sides will share resources in technological training, technological improvement of products, the procurement of raw materials, the establishment of leaf tobacco production bases, mutual production licenses and so on. Altadis USA will provide technological support for the upgrading of GWCF and will also provide GWCF technicians with professional training in terms of research and development of cigar products, product manufacture, quality control, standards and grading parameters for the quality of raw materials, and so on, in order that the technicians receiving training will be able to master advanced technology and management know-how in all key cigar production processes. 

The tie up with Altadis USA represents an association between GWCF, the leading cigar maker in China and Altadis USA, the world’s largest manufacturer of premium cigars.

It is unprecedented in the history of China’s tobacco industry that a tobacco manufacturer simultaneously enters into cooperation with two transnational cigar giants. 

Speaking to Tobacco Asia, Wu Gang said that the corporation manufactures a complete range of cigar products including handmade cigars, cigarillos and machine-made mini cigars. Cooperation with two different transnational cigar giants does not mean repetition or waste. Rather, it is intended to draw on the advantages and strong points of the two different partners in order to promote the development of different cigar products by CTCIC.

The successful cooperation between CTCIC and Altadis and Agio in the development and production of Great Wall cigars will result in new technological breakthroughs and further promotion of the corporation’s overall cigar production capacity. 

At the same time, introduction of advanced foreign technology and management know-how will contribute to developing highly qualified human resources for the research and development of new cigar products, bringing China’s cigar production technology in line with international standards and enabling Great Wall cigars to integrate into the global marketplace. 

The combination of existing Chinese technology with advanced foreign techniques will inevitably result in the development of a new Great Wall that not only meets international standards but will also embody unique Chinese characteristics.

It was because of its full confidence in the future development of the domestic cigar manufacturing sector and GWCF of CTCIC that STMA extended unreserved support to the corporation’s simultaneous launch of cooperation with the two transnational cigar giants.

In January 2010, STMA director-general Jiang Chengkang personally attended the signing ceremony between CTCIC and Altadis USA, directly showing STMA’s great support to the corporation’s international cooperation project. 

Likewise, attending the signing ceremony between GWCF and Royal Dutch Agio Cigars, STMA deputy director-general Li Keming particularly briefed Ad Wintermans, Agio’s current president-director, on the marketing and production of cigar products in China. 

He told Wintermans that the cigar market in China has vast potential for further development, that STMA has specifically adopted plans for the development of cigar production, that cigar production will be a priority of China’s tobacco industry and that CTCIC is the premier cigar production base designated by STMA.

Li also told Wintermans that STMA will continue to extend unreserved support to CTCIC in its cooperation with Agio. He expressed the belief that through concerted efforts the two sides will achieve great success in their future cooperation.

In the capacity of the leading domestic cigar maker, GWCF of CTCIC, with the support extended by STMA, has become the manufacturer of China’s landmark cigar brand – Great Wall – through continued development of markets, in-depth promotion of international cooperation, and strengthening of independent technological innovation.

In future, it will certainly be a powerful force leading the development of the domestic cigar manufacturing sector.