Bei CigarCyclopedia ist der Artikel «A FINE TIME TO BE IN THE CIGAR BUSINESS» zu finden. Altadis rapportierte für das dritte Quartal 2006 grosse Nachrage nach Havannas:

Of course, Altadis owns half of Habanos S.A., the distribution arm of the Cuban cigar industry and sales increased by almost 14% to 104 million Euro ($133.7 million U.S.) compared to 2005. The financial report noted that sales in “emerging markets” such as Morocco, Russia, in the Asia-Pacific region and in Latin America were starting to become real contributors to earnings.

Insgesamt – von den Havannas und dem US-Markt abgesehen – lief es für den Branchenprimus aber eher zäh:

By itself, the third quarter wasn’t a strong one as overall cigar sales were down almost 10% and earnings (before income taxes, depreciation and amortization) were off 8%. But after two strong quarters, these dips weren’t severe enough to cause alarm.