We take a look at the Ramon Allones brand which, despite once being one of the most popular brands, has sold less Cuban Cigars online the last few years and has seen a dip in its popularity as of late.
The amount of people who buy cigars online is increasing every day, allowing millions of cigar enthusiasts to taste the authentic flavours of Cuban Cigars without even setting one foot outside of their home. This has meant that new sizes and blends have been created by brands to keep up with the every changing demand. Ramon Allones though, seems to be falling behind other major cigar brands like the well-liked Cohiba Cuban Cigars and Montecristo Cuban Cigars and hasn’t expanded its standard range for a long time.
The brand was founded by brothers Ramon and Antonio Allones in 1845 and over time went through multiple ownerships. In the early 1900s, Ramon Allones was owned by Hunters, which is arguably when the brand was at its most successful. During this time, the brand’s catalogue reached a magnificent total of 62, giving smokers an excellent array of vitolas to choose from.
Ramon Allones found success up until the Second World War, where it underwent Wartime currency restrictions which prohibited Britain’s ability to import Havana Cigars up until as late as 1952. Despite these prohibitions, Ramon Allones remained a big competitor in the Cuban Cigar business and released a number of exceptional vitolas. These included heavy ring gauge sizes such as the Magnum (143mm x 46) and the Ramon Allones Specially Selected (130mm x 48) and much slimmer sized vitolas, like the Ideales de Ramon (161mm x 36).
The Ramon Allones band has undergone various changes, this band is the latest one which has Habana and Cuba flanking the brand's name.
After the Cuban Revolution in 1959 and up to 1970, there were hardly any changes or additions to the brand. The only noteworthy thing to happen to the Ramon Allones brand during this decade, was the way it began packaging its Coronas Cigars. 25 Cigars were arranged in an 8-9-8 manner, with eight on the bottom row, 9 on the middle row and 8 on the bottom -also seen in the Partagas 8-9-8 Cigar.
The period after this saw a number of different changes, some which initially felt positive and would lead to small developments in the brand, would then prove to be fruitless. Firstly, in 1972, many sizes were discontinued, such as the Specially Selected and the Magnum and a number of new ones were introduced. These moves proved popular with Ramon Allones smokers, especially in 1975 when the Specially Selected Cigar returned in a Robusto format, measuring at 124mm by 50 ring gauge. During these years Ramon Allones had sales significantly higher than its competitors like Montecristo Cigars and Partagas.
Nevertheless, this all changed in 1980, when other brands were becoming more well known across the globe and Ramon Allones remained only popular in Britain and Switzerland. And by 1979 a number of cigars, including the Allones Grandes and Selección No. 55 from the range disappeared entirely. This reduction of their range continued up until the early 2000s, leaving only three sizes left - the Ramon Allones Small Club Corona Cigar, the Ramon Allones Specially Selected Cigar and the Ramon Allones Gigantes Cigar.
The Ramon Allones Small Coronas' (pictured above) gorgeous Minutos vitola measures at 110mm by a 42 ring gauge.
Things seemed to finally reach rock bottom for the brand when Ramon Allones was listed by Habanos S.A as one of the least important brands, being placed into the lowest category on the list ‘Local brand'. But luckily, in 2005, Habanos S.A. introduced a new operation, which allowed distributors to call for special sizes to be made by lesser-known brands, which would be sold as exclusive Regional Editions. These Regional Editions are some of the most sought after Cigars online and up until 2017 an impressive 170 different sizes have been produced. An equally impressive statistic is that Ramon Allones is one brand that accounts for one in five of these very special Regional Editions and at the moment we have two of these available on our website:
Therefore, we can attest that it’s not the brand’s quality which has seen them regress their range, but a lack of exposure, otherwise these expert distributors would not invest in them and the cigars. In the end, we think that despite the brand’s almost apparent demise, it looks to reprise its former glory and rise again.
Want to find out more about other brands, see our post Spotlight: Cohiba Cigars or Spotlight: Romeo y Julieta Cigars on our Cuban Cigar Blog.