Oettinger Davidoff Transfers All Company Shares To Schneider Family
Swiss corporation Oettinger Davidoff announced today that it has transferred all of its capital shares to the direct descendants of the company founder, placing the tobacco group completely in the hands of the next family generation.
“The daughters of late company founder Dr. Ernst Schneider, Lilian Schaffner-Schneider and Christine Ryhiner-Schneider have set the course for the future of the family business with foresight,” says the official press release.
Davidoff adds that the leadership team will “remain unchanged” and the family members “will continue to hold two of the six seats of the board of directors.”
Domenico Scala, chairman of the board of directors of Oettinger Davidoff, remarks: “The handover of the ownership of Oettinger Davidoff to the next generation is an important milestone in the company’s 150-year-history. The goal is to preserve, continue and further drive the legacy, passion and pioneering spirit of the company’s founders, above all Dr. Ernst Schneider and Zino Davidoff, and to ensure the company’s continued success.”
When Cigar Aficionado asked who owned the balance of the shares before the transfer, Davidoff responded: “Oettinger Davidoff has always been and remains a fully family-owned company.”
The history of the Davidoff brand started with a single shop that grew into an international powerhouse and symbol of luxury products. In 1911, Henri Davidoff opened a tobacconist in Switzerland after fleeing his native Kiev for political reasons. The business was taken over by his son, Zino, who traveled the world and immersed himself in tobacco culture. The shop became one of the world’s leading cigar destinations, as it not only had one of the few climate-controlled storage environments, but elevated smoking to a high-end experience akin to collecting fine wines and Champagnes. By the late 1960s, Davidoff created his own brand of cigars, which were made in Cuba at the time. They bore the elegantly understated Davidoff white band that we still see today.
In 1970, Davidoff was purchased by an even older tobacco company, Oettinger A.G., which was owned by Dr. Ernst Schneider, who passed away in 2009. Oettinger A.G. was started in 1875, hence Davidoff tying its 150th anniversary to Oettinger’s beginnings. The formation of Oettinger Davidoff and its international reach was based on the vision of Schneider.
“I always used three important points as a means to success,” Schneider said in an interview with Cigar Aficionado editor and publisher Marvin R. Shanken. “The first point is that quality and price have to be in order. The second point is the concept has to be in order, and the third point is that you have to make a special distribution system. With all of these together, you will have a successful luxury brand.”
Today, Davidoff has a suite of brands produced in the Dominican Republic, Honduras and Nicaragua. The portfolio includes the Davidoff Signature series (white label), Davidoff Nicaragua (black label), Davidoff Winston Churchill, Avo, Camacho and Zino Platinum. It also has a global network of 65 flagship stores and hundreds of appointed merchants in more than 130 countries.
Read Next: 2025 Cigar Insider Retailer Survey: Top Brands In America
