n jimenes type private industry brewing tobacco industry banking founded 1903 headquarters santo domingo dominican republic key people jos le n asensio president chairman products beer cigars cigarrettes revenue us 600 million website http www.glj.com.do grupo le n jimenes c. por a. 1 is one of the largest companies in the dominican republic with annual revenue of approximately 600 million and is headquartered in santo domingo . this corporation enjoys virtual monopolies in two local markets beer and cigarettes as well as having banking and printing operations . it brews presidente bohemia miller and heineken beers and makes marlboro cigarettes . it is also the parent company of la aurora s.a. the maker of aurora and le n jimenes cigars . the executive vice president of la aurora s.a. is guillermo le n herbert . contents 1 history 2 growth and expansion 2.1 cigar production 3 twentyfirst century 4 notes 5 external links history edit in 1903 eduardo le n jimenes opened a cigar factory in the dominican republic making la auroras cigars . the country was an undeveloped caribbean nation and had only gained independence from haiti in 1844 after twenty two years of occupation and from spain in 1865 after four years of colonial reannexation . fine cigars in the eyes of the world came from cuba and nowhere else . while today the dominican republic has stabilized as the most advanced of the major cigar producing countries the past century saw border disputes with neighboring haiti occupation by american troops dictatorship and civil revolt . in the early 1900s the country was mired in debt and no one considered it a vacation destination . because his father antonio le n was a tobacco grower the 20 something year old figured on abundant raw material to make cigars for the local market . the factory was located in guazumal near tamboril which is now famous for its cigar rollers . some tobacco came from that area and other fields were in gurabo jacagua and el ingenio five or six miles away . in 1903 the dominican republic still had dirt roads and in order to make cigars la aurora had to pack tobacco in wood and ship it by donkey . the rainy season created a quagmire . the beasts of burden trudged through the muck to deliver tobacco to the tiny f brica . the first la auroras were perfectos pointed at each end with a bulbous middle . the cigars were called preferidos . sales like the cigars were entirely dominican . civil strife shut down production at times before la aurora s 30th anniversary . u.s. military forces marched into the dominican republic and occupied the country from 1916 to 1924 . various local generals vied for power and civilians took to the streets . with the revolutions and the uproar the company was sometimes forced to stop production . in 1930 general rafael trujillo seized power from president horacio vazquez creating a dictatorship that would last for more than three decades . trujillo brought order to the country but business opportunities became limited . la aurora wanted to expand from cigars into the lucrative cigarette trade but trujillo owned the only company that was producing cigarettes at the time and he passed laws making it impossible for new entrants to compete due to the duties . growth and expansion edit trujillo s assassination in 1961 created more civil unrest but it did provide an opportunity for la aurora to expand . as soon as trujillo was killed la aurora began to establish contracts and build its first cigarette factory . by 1963 la aurora was making cigarettes and six years later the company forged a relationship with philip morris that continues to this day . the american cigarette giant owns a minority stake in empresa le n jimenes which produces marlboros for the dominican republic . the money from cigarettes began to turn la aurora into a dominant force in the country and it steered the company toward its next grand venture in beer . in 1980 empresa le n jimenes purchased a brewery in alaska and shipped the brewery by boat to the caribbean . the first year the company captured 28 percent of the market . since local turmoil made it impossible for foreign companies to repatriate profits the le ns were able to buy their largest competitor allowing it to control nearly 98 percent of the market . presently le n jimenes brews some heineken and miller beer at cervecer a nacional dominicana but its king brand is presidente which can be found almost anywhere in the dominican republic . cigar production edit the company says it makes 8 million cigars a year . in addition to the la aurora brand the company has made le n jimenes since 1987 and in 2002 it introduced independencia an inexpensive line of dominican wrapped smokes . it also produces small handmade flavored cigars packed in tins for c.a.o. international inc. cigars account for only 1 percent of le n jimenes s sales and even during the peak of the cigar boom profits from cigars paled in comparison with its twin core businesses . le n s youngest son guillermo 43 has run la aurora s cigar business for most of the past decade . la aurora released a celebratory line of dominican puros called aurora cien a os spanish for 100 years to celebrate its milestone . centro le n in santiago . twentyfirst century edit in 2002 the marketing magazine mercado says that results of a survey conducted by read & asociados rank empresa leon jimenez as the most admired company in the dominican republic followed by banco popular and codetel . in 2003 empresa le n jimenes inaugurated a 10 story 10 million corporate office building in santo domingo publishing two books and opening a cultural center in santiago . the shrinkage of the cigar segment among the company s holdings continued as le n jimenes expanded its banking business by acquiring the fourth largest bank in the dominican republic in the same year . expanding its reach so that it does not depend solely on regulated interests is part of a conscious strategy at le n jimenes . at a ceremony attended by then president hip lito mej a on 2 december 2003 the leon jimenes family announced the creation of the banco le n which will represent a union between the banco profesional and banco nacional de credito bancredito . 2 on 25 may 2011 guillermo le n purchased the remaining shares of the la aurora and le n jimenes brands from grupo le n. 3 on 16 april 2012 anheuser busch inbev s brazilian unit ambev agreed to buy a controlling stake in the dominican republic based brewer cerveceria nacional dominicana cnd from grupo leon jimenes for over 1.2 billion forming the biggest beverage company in the caribbean . 4 notes edit c. por a. compa a por acciones shared company dr1 daily news 3 december 2003 minato charlie thecigarfeed . news la aurora purchased by guillermo le n . 26 may 2011 . dead link ambev to buy control of dominican brewer cnd . reuters.com . retrieved 8 may 2012 . external links edit list & ranking of leon jimenes cigars 1 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title grupo le n jimenes & oldid 742243490 categories companies of the dominican republicbrands of the dominican republichidden categories all articles with dead external linksarticles with dead external links from september 2013use dmy dates from july 2013pages using infobox company with unsupported parameters navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 2 october 2016 at 15 14 . text is available under the creative commons attribution 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