�Villiger cigars are not as well known as Swiss fondue, cheese and watches, but we are doing our best to make it known. It does not matter whether you smoke five cigars a day or one a week. You smoke a Villiger because you enjoy it. Villiger is selling enjoyment.�

CHRIS Pfister, Swiss cigar manufacturer Villiger�s director for export sales, is in love with tobacco. He wears a T-shirt with this legend emblazoned on the chest. It turns out, this is Villiger�s line! And Villiger, which is worldwide the fifth biggest cigar manufacturer, and which is family-owned by a fifth generation Villiger Swiss gentleman called Heinrich, has some famous personalities in love with its products. �Like Pierce Brosnan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Demi Moore, Clint Eastwood and Don Johnson,� says Chris, smiling and flashing white teeth in a handsome Schwarzenegger-like face. �Mr. Heinrich Villiger, he smokes ten cigars a day!.�

He was in India to supervise the launch and sales of Villiger cigars. �There is an awareness here and I was amazed to see how Villiger cigars were accepted in Chennai,� he says. Villiger has about 15 sales representatives on the roads of Chennai and Delhi respectively and Chris credits them totally with the sales and marketing of the cigars. �The sales are already turning and this is not just pipeline filling, but we are getting repeat orders too,� he explains. �Even small shops in street corners are stocking Villiger cigars! They are very affordable. And we have a big range of products. Different shapes and sizes for different markets. It�s exciting to see that we can create a cigar trend here.�

Chris describes the Villiger cigar man as a smoker who likes quality. �Once a Villiger smoker, always a Villiger smoker,� he says confidently. �The product is excellent, it has a taste and flavour other cigars don�t have, and any Villiger smoker will confirm that. Our cigars are machine-made, but we use some Cuban tobacco, and that produces a special kick. Smokers realise that. They notice the difference. And they don�t mind paying a little more knowing that they are getting a particular product.� Villiger, he says, is very strong in the Swiss market, it enjoys a share of 42 per cent. In Germany, Villiger holds 17 per cent of the market. And worldwide, it has four to five per cent.

He himself, naturally, is a Villiger man. He�s been five years with the company. Before this, he was selling Marlboro cigarettes! �Once a cigarette smoker starts cigars, he will stick to cigars, unless he is an addict,� Chris says. His job is to visit importers in every country to establish a market concept using local experience and Villiger�s Swiss experience. �Villiger cigars are not as well known as Swiss fondue, cheese and watches, but we are doing our best to make it known,� Chris says. �It does not matter whether you smoke five cigars a day or one a week. You smoke a Villiger because you enjoy it. Villiger is selling enjoyment, pleasure, flavour and 100 per cent tobacco. Not chemicals. Tobacco is a natural and nice product, we take a lot of care to grow, harvest and blend it, and in making a nice cigar.�