On Track for World-Beating Products: Cigaronne’s Strategy for U.S. and Asian Markets
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Redefining luxury is at the core of Pogossian and Cigaronne. They are Armenia at its best.
“To us, luxury is giving the consumer more than they expect — meeting unspoken needs they may not even realize they have.” So said Armen Pogossian, who expands below on Armenia’s lifestyle solutions, vodka and its flagship, uniquely Armenian brandy.
What makes your flagship products so unique among the competition?
Our Godfather Vodka, featuring soft-touch packaging and real Armenian obsidian stone, combines boldness with refinement. The key is our advanced filtration, developed over 30 years in the vodka industry, making it extremely pure and anti-hangover. By removing toxic substances, it drinks smoothly, almost like water. Each bottle comes with a sampler, highlighting its premium quality. We are introducing a new culture — Pogossian Luxury Brand House — beyond Cigaronne. Our philosophy is to challenge norms and create a refined experience in everything we do.
Jardins d’Arménie Royal Brandy is our crown jewel — a 35- to 50-year-old Armenian spirit, crafted from locally sourced Voskehat grapes. Consumers can try the product before buying — a $1,500 bottle — highlighting our focus on quality and patented technology. We pioneered aging it in both oak and apricot barrels, inspired by the Armenian instrument dukduk, creating chocolate, vanilla, smoky and fruity notes. Sommeliers worldwide praise its unique flavor, making it a true symbol of Armenia. It is a purely Armenian creation and represents a new product category where consumers can taste before buying.
Jardins d’Arménie was first launched in Yerevan, then in Monaco. Monaco provided the perfect bridge between Armenia and Western Europe, embodying refinement and sophistication. The launch was attended by Prince Albert and featured Armenian art, music and dance, blending our culture with our brandy.
What is your strategy for expanding exports into California?
We have long sold our spirits in California, benefiting from its large Armenian diaspora and size as a launchpad for the rest of the U.S. Jardins d’Arménie will also enter the U.S. market starting in California very soon. We are actively expanding our distribution and now have international partners across multiple continents.
Cigaronne is a product often given as a gift and a source of pride for the Armenian diaspora, representing something we are proud to share with both fellow Armenians and the world. As Armenians, we all share the responsibility of representing our country and culture to the world, including the U.S. Our products, brands and people help shape that impression, and we hope Cigaronne complements the quality and pride we aim to convey.
Which markets hold the highest potential for Cigaronne’s next steps of global expansion?
Cigaronne is present in almost all countries in Southeast Asia and East Asia, such as Japan, Korea and China. The duty-free segment has been reaching a very high level of expansion, along with airports, ports and border shops. Along with the Asian market, we’re trying our best to keep up with this development by investing a lot of capital into machinery, in order to keep up with the demand.
Currently, we’ve also been expanding more intensely into the Middle Eastern and European markets and those markets are reaching a certain level of demand that was unseen in the company before. We’re excited to be re-entering the U.S. market very soon and that’s going to be a very interesting event. Cigaronne exports to over 40 countries—the only Armenian product with such reach.
Right now, we’re working on our expansion and we’re working on developing the existing markets as well, because it’s one thing to have a footing in a market and it’s a totally different thing to develop that market and make sure that people know about the product and know about its presence.
In many places, people are not aware that the product is present in their market, so we’re trying our best — within the reach of our abilities and whatever is legally permissible — to let people know that this product is present in the country where they are. This applies to all of our products, not simply Cigaronne, but also Jardins d’Arménie and Godfather. We have a big portfolio of products.
How do you gain, train and retain talent?
Cigaronne’s popularity and export focus allow us to offer staff exceptional growth opportunities. We employ 1,200 people, from production to top management, all united by a strong belief in the product’s potential on the global stage as a symbol of Armenian production. Our team is truly global, with staff from the UAE, post-Soviet countries, Asia, Africa and Europe.
