cigar aficionado - The Moodie Report

KEYNOTE INTERVIEW • Mohamed Zeidan January 2006
"Compañero" whispers Fidel Castro to Mohamed Zeidan, pictured with the Cuban
leader on one of his many visits to Cuba
including Africa, the Middle East, all Arab countries,
Turkey, Iran and some European countries such as Greek,
Malta and Cyprus. It was a landmark deal that has transformed
the scope of Phoenicia, and Zeidan says he is
excited about the opportunities.
“We are making a study of the markets and 2006 will be
the action year,” he enthuses. “We are very optimistic
about the prospects for Cuban cigars. One of our main
challenges is to do something really special in the other
markets.”
“Believe me,” says Zeidan, “in an airport environment
such as ours, cigar smokers will spend more than they
would have done otherwise”
Phoenicia will draw heavily for inspiration on its successful
business in Lebanon, where the company runs not
only the airport store but the magnificent downtown
Casa del Habano operation.
Will the company repeat the Lebanese model? “Yes.
That is why Habanos came to us – to have this model
everywhere,” Zeidan replies. “We will focus mainly on
airports, though in many cases we won’t have the same
space. But the approach, selection, display, pricing strategy
– everything else will be the same.”
He is convinced that if airports give the category the
appropriate space and ambience – preferably run by
Phoenicia – then the results will flow immediately. He
points out that an ultra-successful retail complex such as
Dubai Duty Free does about a tenth of Beirut Duty Free’s
cigar business, despite having around 17 million passengers
to Beirut International Airport’s 3.3 million (admittedly
most of them high-spending Lebanense – Ed).
“Believe me,” he says, gently blowing a large plume of
smoke into the air, “in such an environment cigar smokers
will spend much more than they would otherwise.”
He adds: “At the airport cigars represent nearly 25% of
our business, yet they are less than 1% of duty free worldwide.
Anyone who wants to buy a cigar wants to know
more, they want service. So anyone who is selling cigars
should have a lot of information – they should know
everything there is to know about them.”
Zeidan said the idea for the Beirut International Airport
cigar extravaganza was a long time in the making. “For five
years before we created it I had been thinking of something
like this. I had visited many countries to get inspiration.
And we didn’t do it just for Beirut Duty Free; it
was also to create an image for Cuban cigars worldwide.”
102 The Moodie Report