Bacardi
This article is about an enterprise. For article about Bacardi Island, see that article.Bacardi is the world's largest privately held, family-owned
spirits company; a producer of
rums, including
Bacardi Superior and
Bacardi 151. The company sells in excess of 240 million bottles per year in 170 countries. The business is the fourth largest spirits company in the world: sales in 2004 were $3.3 billion USD, up from $2.7 billion USD in 2000. A number of planned stock market flotations have collapsed, the last in 2000.
Originally founded by
Don Facundo Bacardi Masso in
1862 in
Santiago de Cuba, Bacardi is headquartered today in Hamilton,
Bermuda, with most production in
Puerto Rico. The distillery is part of the
American Whiskey Trail.
Don Facundo, a wine merchant, emigrated from
Catalonia to
Cuba in the early
19th century. During this period, rum was cheaply made and not considered a refined drink, one rarely sold in upscale taverns. Don Facundo began attempting to "tame" rum. After experimenting with several techniques he hit upon filtering the rum through charcoal, which removed impurities. In addition to this Facundo aged the rum in oak barrels, which had the effect of "mellowing" the drink.
Moving from the experimental stage to a more commercial endeavor, he and his brother José set up shop in a small distillery on
February 4,
1862. Their first copper and
cast iron still produced 35 barrels of fermented
molasses per day. In the rafters of this building lived
fruit bats. Hence, the Bacardi bat logo[
1].
The
1890s were turbulent times for the company.
Emilio Bacardi, eldest son of Don Facundo, was exiled from Cuba for anti-colonial activities and his eldest son was fighting as a
Cuban Independence fighter in the rebel army. Emilio's brothers Facundo and José, and his brother-in-law Henri Schueg, remained in Cuba with the difficult task of sustaining the company during a period of war. The women in the family were refugees in Kingston,
Jamaica. After the
Cuban War of Independence, and the
American occupation of Cuba, "The Original
Cuba Libre" and the
Daiquiri cocktail were both born with Bacardi rum. In
1899,
US- General
Leonard Wood appointed Emilio Bacardi Mayor of Santiago de Cuba.
In
1912, Emilio Bacardi traveled to
Egypt where he purchased a mummy for the future Emilio Bacardi Moreau Municipal Museum in Santiago de Cuba. In Santiago, his brother
Facundo M. Bacardi continued to meticulously supervise the training of the third generation of Family Master Blenders. Henri Schueg, meanwhile, began to expand the company, opening new bottling plants in
Barcelona and
New York City. The New York plant was soon shut down due to
Prohibition, yet during this time Cuba became a hotspot for US tourists.
In the
1920s, Emilio opened a new distillery in Santiago. During this decade, the
art deco Bacardi building was built in
Havana and the third generation of the Bacardi family was entering the business.
Facundito Bacardi was known to have invited US-Americans (still subject to Prohibition) to "Come to Cuba and bathe in Bacardi rum." A new product was introduced:
Hatuey beer.
The
1930s brought a new bottling plant in
Mexico City and a new distillery in
Puerto Rico under the leadership of Ron Bacardi. Several trademark disputes went to court during this time regarding use of the Bacardi name on rum produced outside of Cuba. The company's leadership then fell to Henri Schueg, who managed to keep the family name on the bottles coming from Puerto Rico. Another case was won by Bacardi which allowed that "…a Bacardi Cocktail is only a Bacardi Cocktail when made with Bacardi rum."
During the
World War II years the company was led by Henri's son-in-law
Jose Pepin Bosch. Pepin founded Bacardi Imports in New York City, and was named Cuba's Minister of the Treasury in
1949.
After the
Cuban Revolution, with
Fidel Castro and other M-26-J members coming to power in
1959, the Bacardi company fled Cuba for the
Bahamas. Castro then seized all remaining Bacardi assets in Cuba. It is claimed by Hernando Calvo Ospina that Bacardi financed anti-Castro groups after the revolution, later helped found the
Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) in
1981, and supported the
Helms-Burton Act of
1996.
Ernest Hemingway mentions Hatuey beer in two of his works:
To Have and Have Not and
The Old Man and the Sea. In
1956, Bacardi held a festival in honor of Hemingway's winning the
Nobel Prize in Literature.
In 1992 Bacardi acquired Martini & Rossi S.p.A. the famous Italian producer of Martini vermouth and sparkling wines.
In 2004 Bacardi purchased the label
Grey Goose, a French made
vodka, from
Sidney Frank for $2 billion.
Other associated brands include
Bombay Sapphire gin, Dewar's Scotch whisky,
Drambuie Scotch whisky liqueur, DiSaronno Amaretto, and B&B and Benedictine liqueurs. Bacardi also distributes the Jack Daniels whisky and Southern Comfort brands in most of Europe.
On
December 19,
2005, Sergio Danguillecourt, a member of the board of directors of Bacardi and a great-great grandson of the company's founder
Don Facundo Bacardi Masso was killed in a
vintage seaplane crash off
Miami Beach, together with his wife, Jacqueline Kriz Danguillecourt.
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Bacardi Breezer*
Bacardi Superior*
Bacardi Oro (Gold)*
Bacardi Black*
Bacardi 151*
Bacardi Apple (United Kingdom)
*
Bacardi Razz (United States)
*
Bacardi O (Orange Rum) (United States)
*
Bacardi Limon*
Bacardi, official website
*
Bacardi Limited, Yahoo! company profile
