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TOBACCO BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015
V i e w F r o m T h e T o p
J
im Young has been busy since
joining Davidoff of Geneva in
2011—and for good reason. At
the time, Davidoff was still struggling
to digest both Cusano Cigars and
Camacho, which it acquired in 2009
and 2008, respectively. “The physical
integration had happened, but the
cultural integration—which is the tricky
part and also the most important—had
not,” explains Young.
Fresh from leading Guinness USA as
its president, Young came to Davidoff
well-versed in the intricacies of a luxury
product industry that is both highly
regulated and heavily taxed,as well as the
complexities of integrating acquisitions.
However, for him the most striking
similarity between the two industries
proved to be something else entirely: the
people. “Both are fundamentally ‘people’
industries, whether it’s the founders
who started them and built them up
or the retailers and distributors, who
are often family-owned and -operated
enterprises,”he says.“They are industries
that are largely about delivering a quality
consumer experience, but they’re also
about relationships.”
Young andOettinger DavidoffGroup
CEO Hans-Kristian Hoejsgaard, also
appointed in 2011, needed to develop
a cohesive strategy for its portfolio
of brands and to align the company
internally around that mission. “It was
important to put a structure together
and get people in roles so they were clear
on where we needed to go and how they
would interact with other parts of the
company,” says Young, who says that
he huddled with his colleagues in the
parent company’s Basel, Switzerland
headquarters to hammer out a strategy
to give each of the company’s brands
a distinct position in the market and
expand from there.
Davidoff Branches Out
First on the agenda came the
company’s namesake brand.“The tagline
Going Deep
at Davidoff
An interview with
Jim Young, president
of Davidoff North
America
By Jennifer Gelfand
i