cuba cuba 4 february 1862 founder don facundo bacard mass headquarters hamilton bermuda 1 key people facundo l. bacardi chairman ; michael j. dolan ceo 2 products bacardi rum grey goose vodka dewar s blended scotch whisky bombay sapphire gin martini & rossi vermouth and asti eristoff vodka cazadores blue agave tequila angel s envy bourbon revenue us 5 billion est. 2012 3 website bacardilimited.com bacardi limited english b k rdi ; catalan b k i ; spanish bakar i is the largest privately held family owned spirits company in the world . originally known for its eponymous bacardi white rum it now has a portfolio of more than 200 brands and labels . 4 founded in 1862 and family owned for seven generations bacardi employs 6 000 people manufactures at 29 facilities in 16 markets on four continents with sales in more than 150 countries . bacardi limited refers to the bacardi group of companies including bacardi international limited . 5 the company sells in excess of 200 million bottles per year . 6 the company s sales in 2007 were us 5.5 billion up from 4.9 billion in 2006 . in recent years sales have stagnated with the company recording us 4.6 billion in 2014 . it laid off ten percent of its north american workforce in 2015 . 7 bacardi limited is headquartered in hamilton bermuda and has a 16 member board of directors led by the original founder s great great grandson facundo l. bacard . along with other leading alcohol producers bacardi is part of a producers commitments organization which aims to reduce harmful drinking . contents 1 history 1.1 early history 1.2 cuban revolution 1.3 bacardi and cuba today 1.4 2012 osha investigation 2 brands 3 awards 4 hemingway connection 5 united states headquarters 6 mexico city buildings 7 references 8 external links history edit the bacardi building in havana cuba early history edit facundo bacard mass a spanish wine merchant was born in sitges catalonia spain in 1814 and emigrated to cuba in 1830 . during this period rum was cheaply made and not considered a refined drink and rarely sold in upmarket taverns . facundo began attempting to tame rum by isolating a proprietary strain of yeast still used in bacardi production . this yeast gives bacardi rum its flavour profile . 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 white oak barrels which had the effect of mellowing the drink . the final product was the first clear or white rum in the world . moving from the experimental stage to a more commercial endeavour he and his brother jos set up a santiago de cuba distillery they bought in 1862 which housed a still made of copper and cast iron . in the rafters of this building lived fruit bats the inspiration for the bacardi bat logo . 8 the 1880s and 90s were turbulent times for cuba and the company . emilio bacardi don facundo s eldest son was repeatedly imprisoned and was exiled from cuba for having fought in the rebel army against spain in the cuban war of independence . 9 emilio s brothers facundo and jos and his brother in law henri don enrique schueg remained in cuba with the difficult task of sustaining the company during a period of war . the women in the family were exiled in kingston jamaica . after the cuban war of independence and the us occupation of cuba the original cuba libre and the daiquiri were both created using bacardi rum . 10 in 1899 us general leonard wood appointed emilio bacardi mayor of santiago de cuba . in 1912 emilio bacardi travelled to egypt where he purchased a mummy still on display for the future emilio bacardi moreau municipal museum in santiago de cuba . 11 in santiago his brother facundo m. bacard 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 1915 . 12 the new york plant was soon shut down due to prohibition yet during this time cuba became a hotspot for us tourists . in 1922 emilio opened a new distillery in santiago . in 1930 schueg opened the art deco bacardi building in havana and the third generation of the bacard family entered the business . facundito bacard was known to have invited americans still subject to prohibition to come to cuba and bathe in bacardi rum . 11 a new product was introduced hatuey beer . the cathedral of rum at the bacardi distillery in cata o puerto rico near san juan bacardi s transition into an international brand was due mostly to schueg s business genius ; schueg branded cuba as the home of rum and bacardi as the king of rums and expanded overseas first to mexico 1931 then to puerto rico 1936 under the brand name ron bacardi . ron is the spanish word for rum . post prohibition production in puerto rico enabled rum to be sold tariff free in the us . 13 he then expanded to the united states 1944 . 14 during world war ii the company was led by schueg s son in law jos pepin bosch . pepin founded bacardi imports in new york city and became cuba s minister of the treasury in 1949 . cuban revolution edit portuondo and other bacard family members initially supported the cuban revolutionaries including fidel castro and the broader m 26 7 movement bosch personally donated tens of thousands of dollars to the movement and acted as an intermediary between the revolutionaries and the cia to assuage the latter s concerns . 13 family members employees and facilities were put to use by the movement and the company supported the revolution publicly with advertisements and parties . 13 but their support turned to opposition as the pro soviet che guevara wing citation needed of the movement began to dominate and as castro turned against their interests . the bacard family and hence the company maintained a fierce opposition to fidel castro s revolution in cuba in the 1960s . in his book bacardi the hidden war hernando calvo ospina outlines the political element to the family s money . ospina describes how the bacardi family and the company left cuba after the castro regime confiscated the company s cuban assets on 15 october 1960 particularly nationalizing and banning all private property on the island as well as all bank accounts . however due to concerns over the previous cuban leader fulgencio batista the company had started foreign branches a few years before the revolution ; the company moved the ownership of its trademarks assets and proprietary formulas out of the country to the bahamas prior to the revolution and also built plants in puerto rico and mexico after prohibition to save import taxes on rum being imported to the u.s. this helped the company survive after the communist government confiscated all bacard assets in the country without any compensation . 15 ospina also explains the close ties bacard family members had to the u.s. political elite as well as to organizations of state such as the cia . the family funded various cuban exile organizations such as canf . more recently bacardi lawyers were influential in the drafting of the 1996 helms burton act which sought to extend the scope of the united states embargo against cuba . 16 in 1999 otto reich a lobbyist in washington on behalf of bacardi drafted section 211 of the omnibus consolidated and emergency appropriations act fy1999 pub.l . 105 277 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 keenly sought by bacardi . the act was aimed primarily at the havana club brand in the u.s. the brand was created by the jos 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 . 17 18 this new law was drafted to invalidate the lawful trademark registration . section 211 has been challenged unsuccessfully by the cuban government and the european union in u.s. courts . it was also ruled illegal by the wto in 2001 and 2002 . 19 the u.s. congress has yet to re examine the matter . the brand was assigned by the cuban government to pernod ricard in 1993 . bacardi and cuba today edit bacardi drinks are not found in cuba today . the main brand of rum in cuba is havana club produced by a company that was confiscated and nationalized by the government during the revolution . bacardi later bought the brand from the original owners the arechabala family . the cuban government in partnership with the french company pernod ricard sells its havana club products internationally except in the united states and its territories . bacardi created its own line of havana club rum based on the original recipe from the arechabala family manufactures it in puerto rico and sells it in florida . bacardi continues to fight in the courts attempting to legalize their own havana club trademark outside the united states . 20 drinks now made in the former cuban bacardi distillery are sold in cuba under the name caney . despite having no production facilities in cuba today bacardi in the uk has recently decided to re emphasize its cuban heritage primarily for commercial reasons . facing increased competition in the rum market from the now international brand havana club the company concluded that it was important for sales to associate its rum with cuba . tv advertisements with slogans of welcome to the latin quarter are but one example of this . in 1998 under the distinctive bat logo the phrase company founded in santiago de cuba in 1862 was added . bacardi has faced criticism and legal problems for supposedly attempting to encourage consumers to believe that they were purchasing rum made in cuba rather than just marking its heritage . bacardi adverts in spain since 1966 had described a popular combination of rum and coke as rum and coke . however after 1998 it began to describe the drink as cuba libre literally translated as free cuba which is the original name of the drink and what it is mostly called in latin america . in this instance bacardi faced a legal ruling from the spanish association of advertising users which forced the company to stop the advert . they concluded that it could mislead the viewer as to the true nature of the product as the advert contained so much caribbean imagery one might conclude it came from cuba . 21 clarification needed the bacardi building in havana is regarded as one of the finest art deco buildings in latin america . 22 2012 osha investigation edit in august 2012 a temporary worker at the company s jacksonville florida bottling subsidiary bacardi bottling was fatally injured while servicing a palletizer machine . after conducting an investigation the u.s. department of labor s occupational safety and health administration osha determined that bacardi was in violation of several safety regulations including two willful violations . bacardi bottling was fined 192 000 by osha . 23 24 brands edit bacardi limited has made numerous acquisitions to diversify away from the eponymous bacardi rum brand . in 1993 bacardi merged with martini & rossi the italian producer of martini vermouth and sparkling wines creating the bacardi martini group . in 1998 the company acquired dewar s scotch including royal brackla and bombay