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Bacardi Limited ( , , ) is the largest privately held, family-owned spirits company in the world. Originally known for its Bacardí brand of white rum, it now has a portfolio of more than 200 brands and labels. Founded in Cuba in 1862 by Facundo Bacardi, a Spain businessman born in Sitges, Bacardi Limited has been family-owned for seven generations, and employs more than 8,000 people with sales in approximately 170 countries. Bacardi Limited is the group of companies as a whole and includes Bacardi International Limited.
Bacardi Limited is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda, and has a board of directors led by the original founder's great-great-grandson, Facundo L. Bacardí, the board's chairman. The company's Cathedral of Rum in Puerto Rico, the largest rum Distillation in the world, produces 85% of Bacardi rum worldwide, while the remaining 15% originates from distilleries in Mexico and India.
Moving from the experimental stage to a more commercial endeavour as local sales began to grow, Facundo and his brother José purchased a Santiago de Cuba distillery on October 16, 1862, which housed a still made of copper and cast iron. In the rafters of this building lived Leaf-nosed bat – the inspiration for the Bacardi bat logo. It was the idea of Doña Amalia, Facundo's wife, to adopt the bat to the rum bottle when she recognized its symbolism of family unity, good health, and good fortune to her husband's homeland of Spain. This logo was pragmatic considering the high illiteracy rate in the 19th century, enabling customers to easily identify the product. "Bacardi and the bat: All Bacardi rum supplied to U.S. bottled in Jacksonville". Jax Daily Record. 3 January 2012.
The 1880s and 1890s were turbulent times for Cuba and the company. Emilio Bacardí, Don Facundo's eldest son, known for his forward thinking in both his professional and personal life and a passionate advocate for Cuban Independence was imprisoned twice for having fought in the rebel army against Spain in the Cuban War of Independence.
Emilio's brothers, Facundo and José, and their brother-in-law Enrique 'Henri' Schueg, remained in Cuba with the difficult task of sustaining the company during a period of war. With Don Facundo's passing in 1886, Doña Amalia sought refuge by exile in Kingston, Jamaica. At the end of the Cuban War of Independence during the US occupation of Cuba, "The Original Cuba Libre" and the Daiquiri cocktails were both created, with the then Cuban based Bacardí rum. In 1899, Emilio Bacardí became the first democratically elected mayor of Santiago, appointed US General Leonard Wood.
During his time in public office, Emilio established schools and hospitals, completed municipal projects such as the famous Padre Pico Street and the Bacardi Dam, financed the creation of parks, and decorated the city of Santiago with monuments and sculptures. In 1912, Emilio and his wife travelled to Egypt, where he purchased a mummy (still on display) for the future Emilio Bacardi Moreau Municipal Museum in Santiago de Cuba. In Santiago, his brother Facundo M. Bacardí continued to manage the company along with Schueg, who began the company's international expansion by opening bottling plants in Barcelona (1910) and New York City (1916). The New York plant was soon shut down due to Prohibition, yet during this time Cuba became a hotspot for US tourists, kicking off a period of rapid growth for the Bacardi company and the onset of cocktail culture in America. in Havana was constructed in 1930 but abandoned when the company fled Cuba following the Cuban Revolution in 1959]]In 1922, the family completed the expansion and renovation of the original distillery in Santiago, increasing the site's rum production capacity. In 1930 Schueg oversaw the construction and opening of Edificio Bacardí in Havana, regarded as one of the finest Art Deco buildings in Latin America, as the third generation of the Bacardí family entered the business. In 1927, Bacardi ventured outside the realm of spirits for the first time, with the introduction of an authentic Cuban Malt beer: Hatuey beer.
Bacardi's success in transitioning into an international brand and company was due mostly to Schueg, who branded Cuba as "The home of rum", and Bacardí as "The king of rums and the rum of Kings". Expansion began overseas, first to Mexico in 1931, where architects Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe and Felix Candela designed office buildings and a bottling plant in Mexico City during the 1950s. The building complex was added to the tentative list of UNESCO's World Heritage Site list on 20 November 2001. In 1936, Bacardi began producing rum on U.S. territory in Puerto Rico after Prohibition which enabled the company to sell rum tariff-free in the United States. The company later expanded to the United States in 1944 with the opening of Bacardi Imports, Inc. in Manhattan, New York City.
During World War II, the company was led by Schueg's son-in-law, José "Pepin" Bosch. Pepin founded Bacardi Imports in New York City and became Cuba's Minister of the Treasury in 1949.
In 1965, over 100 years after the company was established in Cuba, Bacardi established new roots and found a new home with global headquarters in Hamilton, Bermuda. In February 2019, Bacardi's CEO, Mahesh Madhavan, stated that Bacardí's global headquarters would remain in Bermuda for the next "500 years" and that "Bermuda is our home now."
In 1999, Otto Reich, a lobbyist in Washington on behalf of Bacardí, drafted section 211 of the Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Appropriations Act, FY1999, a bill that became known as the Bacardi Act. Section 211 denied trademark protection to products of Cuban businesses expropriated after the Cuban revolution, a provision sought by Bacardí. The act was aimed primarily at the Havana Club brand in the US. The brand was created by the José Arechabala S.A. and nationalised without compensation in the Cuban revolution, the Arechabala family left Cuba and stopped producing rum. They, therefore, allowed the US trademark registration for "Havana Club" to lapse in 1973. Taking advantage of the lapse, the Cuban government registered the mark in the US in 1976. This new law was drafted to invalidate the trademark registration. Section 211 has been challenged unsuccessfully by the Cuban government and the European Union in US courts. It was ruled illegal by the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001 and 2002. The US Congress has yet to re-examine the matter. The Cuban government assigned the brand to Pernod Ricard in 1993.
Bacardi rekindled the story of the Arechabala family and Havana Club in the United States when it launched the AMPARO Experience in 2018, an immersive play experience based in Miami, the city with the highest population of Cuban exiles. AMPARO "is the story of the family's entire history being erased and their heritage 'stolen'" according to playwright Vanessa Garcia.
In 1973, the company commissioned the square building in the plaza. Architect Ignacio Carrera-Justiz used cantilevered construction, a style invented by Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright observed how well trees with taproots withstood hurricane-force winds. The building, raised off the ground around a central core, features four massive walls made of sections of inch-thick hammered glass mural tapestries designed and manufactured in France. The striking design of the annex, affectionately known as the 'Jewel Box' building, came from a painting by German artist Johannes M. Dietz.
In 2006, Bacardi USA leased a 15-story headquarters complex in Coral Gables, Florida. At the time, Bacardi had employees in seven buildings across Miami-Dade County, Florida.
Bacardi vacated its former headquarters buildings on Biscayne Boulevard in Midtown Miami. The building currently serves as the headquarters of the National YoungArts Foundation. Miami citizens began a campaign to label the buildings as "historic". The Bacardi Buildings Complex has been a locally protected historic resource since Oct. 6, 2009, when it was designated by unanimous decision by the Historic and Environmental Preservation Board.
In 2007 Chad Oppenheim, the head of Oppenheim Architecture + Design, described the Bacardi buildings as "elegant, with a Modernist look a local flavour".Rousseau, Bryant. "In Conversation: Chad Oppenheim". Businessweek. 27 June 2007. 2. Retrieved on 3 October 2009. In April 2009, University of Miami professor of architecture Allan Schulman said "Miami's brand is its identity as a tropical city. The Bacardi buildings are exactly the sort that resonate with our consciousness of what Miami is about." "Miami weighs preserving iconic Bacardi buildings". Associated Press at New York Daily News. Tuesday 7 April 2009. Retrieved 3 October 2009.
The American headquarters is in Coral Gables, Florida. "Bacardi USA Announces New Headquarters in South Florida". Retrieved 18 October 2010.
In 1993, Bacardi merged with Martini & Rossi, the Italian producer of Martini vermouth and sparkling wines, creating the Bacardi-Martini group. Other associated brands include the Real Havana Club, Drambuie Scotch whisky liqueur, DiSaronno Amaretto, Eristoff vodka, Cazadores Tequila, B&B and Bénédictine liqueurs.
In 1998, Bacardi company acquired John Dewar & Sons, Ltd and Bombay Sapphire from Diageo for $2 billion.
In 2004, Bacardi purchased Grey Goose, a French-made vodka, from Sidney Frank for $2 billion.
In 2006 Bacardi purchased New Zealand vodka brand 42 Below.
In 2018, Bacardi purchased tequila manufacturer Patrón Spirits Company for $5.1 billion.
In 2023, Bacardi acquired the super-premium mezcal brand, Ilegal Mezcal.
In December 2023, Bacardi took majority control of Irish whiskey producer Teeling.
Beer: Hatuey
Cachaça: Leblon
Cognac: Otard, D'ussé
Gin: Bombay Sapphire, Bosford Rose, Oxley
Liqueur: Bénédictine, Cedlila, Get, Martini Spirito, Patrón Citrónge, St-Germain
Mezcal: Ilegal Mezcal
Rum: Bacardí, Banks, Castillo, Facundo, Havana Club, Pyrat, Santa Teresa, Single Cane Estate
Sparkling wine: Martini Alta Langa, Martini Asti, Martini Grandi Augur, Martini Magici Istanti, Martini Prosecco, Martini Riserva di Montellera. Martini Rosé
Tequila: Camino Real, Cazadores, Corzo, Patrón
Vermouth: Martini, Noilly Prat
Vodka: Eristoff, Grey Goose, Russian Prince, Ultimat Vodka, 42 Below
American whiskey: Angel's Envy, Stillhouse
Irish whiskey: Teeling
Scotch whisky:
Single malt Scotch whisky: Aberfeldy, Aultmore, Craigellachie, Deveron, Royal Brackla
Blended Scotch whisky: Dewar's, William Lawson's
In 1954, Compañía Ron Bacardi S.A. threw Hemingway a party when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature – soon after the publication of his novel The Old Man and the Sea (1952) – in which he honored the company by mentioning its Hatuey beer. Hemingway also mentioned Bacardí and Hatuey in his novels To Have and Have Not (1937) and For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940). Guillermo Cabrera Infante wrote an account of the festivities for the periodical Ciclón, titled "El Viejo y la Marca" ("The Old Man and the Brand", a play on "El Viejo y el Mar", the book's Spanish title). In his account he described how "on one side there was a wooden stage with two streamers – Hatuey beer and Bacardi rum – on each end and a Cuban flag in the middle. Next to the stage was a bar, at which people crowded, ordering daiquiris and beer, all free." A sign at the event read "Bacardi rum welcomes the author of The Old Man and the Sea".
In his article "The Old Man and the Daiquiri", Wayne Curtis writes about how Hemingway's "home bar also held a bottle of Bacardí rum". Hemingway wrote in Islands in the Stream, "...this frozen daiquirí, so well beaten as it is, looks like the sea where the wave falls away from the bow of a ship when she is doing thirty knots."
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