Bacardi history

In 1843 Facundo married a young woman named Amalia, the daughter of a French Bonapartist fighter, and soon began a family.

The couple's married bliss was quite literally shaken on 20th August 1852 when successive earthquakes reduced many of the buildings in Santiago de Cuba to dust.

Despite borrowing money from his wife's wealthy godmother, Clara Astié, to restock the shop, the general melee following the earthquakes and cholera, coupled with a downturn in the island's sugar cane industry due to sugar beet cultivation in Europe, the business was forced into bankruptcy in 1855.

They were rapidly expanding and in May 1862 their firm was incorporated under the name Bacardi, Bouteiller, y Compañía.

As civil war raged in Spain in 1872, Emilio, who had become a Cuban freedom fighter, was caught and exiled to an island off the coast of Morocco.

During his absence, in 1875, hostilities grew and a rebellion swept through Cuba, though the family business was untouched.

Emilio returned to Cuba four years after his capture and learned Bacardi rum had earned a gold medal at the Philadelphia Exposition of 1876.

Bacardi was awarded its first medal in 1877 in Madrid and in its first seventy years amassed a further 29 awards, ten of which appear on the label.

Enrique Schueg, Don Facundo's son-in-law, was also politically active and in 1894 was arrested by the Spanish governors.

Two of the more popular variations were the Daiquiri, named after a Cuban village where an American mining engineer mixed Bacardi, crushed ice, and lime juice in 1896; and the Cuba Libre or Rum & Coke, created by an American army lieutenant in honor of Cuba's new independence.

The United States joined the fray after a mysterious explosion on the United States battleship Maine sparked the Spanish-American War in 1898.

Two years later in 1900, the world’s first Cuba Libre cocktail is created in Havana when American soldiers mix BACARDÍ rum and Coca-Cola® with lime to celebrate the end of the Spanish-American War.

In 1901 Cuba became an independent republic, and Emilio returned home to the Bacardi family and business.

In 1906 Emilio was elected to the Cuban Senate and the next year Jose, the youngest Bacardi son, who had represented the company's interests in Havana, died.

Though the family mourned his loss, the business continued to prosper and in 1910 Emilio returned to his father's homeland to begin Bacardi's first international venture: a new bottling facility in Barcelona, Spain.

On the Road to Success Starting in 1912, after the United States occupation of Cuba, the company expanded with bottling plants in Barcelona and New York City.

Less than a decade later, on May 2, 1919, Compania Ron Bacardi, S.A. was incorporated with Emilio as president, and Facundo Jr. and Enrique as vice presidents.

1920 – BANNED BUT NOT BEATEN Prohibition goes into effect in the United States, banning the manufacturing and sale of alcohol, and the Bacardi bottling facility in New York shuts down.

Bacardi's international sales were also strong in a world whose population topped 1.8 billion by 1922.

When the United States Congress banned the manufacture, sale and consumption of alcohol in 1928, the Company had to shutter its New York bottling plant.

1930 – AN ICONIC DESTINATION As Prohibition carries on in the United States, Bacardi unveils Havana’s first skyscraper: the iconic Edificio Bacardí, designed by the architects Esteban Rodríguez-Castells and Rafael Fernández Ruenes.

First came the establishment of a new subsidiary in Mexico in 1931, which was nearly bankrupt through a severe recession.

When Prohibition was repealed in the United States in December 1933, Bacardi was ready to start serving the thirsty market.

Unfettered by its tropical roots, Bacardi entered the United States marketplace in a bang--selling over 80,000 cases in 1934.

1936 – PROTECTING THE BAT Today, when a customer orders a BACARDÍ Piña Colada, or another cocktail with BACARDÍ in the name, by law it must be served only with BACARDÍ rum.

A Loyal Fan Ernest Hemingway moved to Cuba in 1939 and lived at Finca Vigia in the small town of San Francisco de Paulo, close to Havana.

Bacardi Imports, the predecessor to Bacardi-Martini United StatesA., was formed in 1944.

In 1947, with the reintroduction of whiskey in the United States, rum sales plummeted 47 percent in a one-year period.

Bacardi even through the famous author a party when he won the Nobel Prize in 1954.

In 1959, the Bacardi distillery in Malaga, Spain opened.

Bosch, no fan of Batista, was shocked when the new Castro government seized Bacardi's assets, valued at $76 million, in 1960.

Before the end of February 1962, the Bacardi partners took over another small distillery, also on Marina Baja Street, from a Catalan liquor merchant named Manuel Idral.

Coming to America In 1964, Bacardi opened its United States headquarters in Miami, Florida inside an eye-catching building designed by exiled Cuban architect Enrique Gutierrez.

By the end of 1970, 2.6 million cases of Bacardi were sold.

1977 Approximately 12 percent of company stock is sold to an outsider, Hiram Walker.

By 1978 Bacardi Rum became the top-selling brand of distilled spirits in the United States.

1979 – GOING GLOBAL BACARDÍ rum recognizes worldwide sales close to 16 million 9-liter cases making it the world’s number one selling premium spirit brand.

By 1985 Bacardi was selling over 18 million cases a year, with old rival Smirnoff selling less than 14 million.

In 1986, three years after Bacardi Capital was created to manage and invest company funds, a group of inexperienced brokers lost $50 million speculating in the bond market.

1992 – BRINGING US TOGETHER Bacardi opens the Casa BACARDÍ Visitor Center at the Bacardi distillery in Cataño, Puerto Rico—a multimillion-dollar, state-of-the-art tourist experience celebrating the Bacardí family, company history, and unique qualities of BACARDÍ rum.

1993 Bacardi buys a majority interest in Martini & Rossi.

Founded in 1994, The Bacardi Foundation collaborates with environmental, government, and civic groups to promote the protection of the world's coastal waters and beaches.

Introduced in 1995 with an $11 million advertising campaign, Bacardi Limón took off and was considered one of the hottest high-proof new brands of the year.

bacardi corporate information, 1996. available at http://www.bacardi.com.

The changes were announced following the promotion of former marketing controller Stella David to marketing director in September 1997.

"bacardi-martini u.s.a., inc." hoover's online, 6 july 1998. available at http://www.hoovers.com.

In 2000, Bacardi teamed up with Brown-Forman Corp. of Louisville, Kentucky, to bid for Seagram's prized liquor business that included brands such as Chivas Regal Scotch whisky, Crown Royal Canadian whisky, and Captain Morgan.

2002 Tequila Cazadores is purchased.

In 2004, the company acquired Grey Goose vodka.

Gaining Unfair Advantage? – In 2005 it was reported that Bacardi had contributed more than $40,000 to political action committees headed by former United States Congressman Tom DeLay (R-TX) who was then facing trial in Texas for conspiracy to violate election law.

Havana Club's reinstatement in the United States in August 2006 was a sweet victory for not only the Arechabala family, but for Bacardi as well.

In 2007, the company’s sales were US $5.5 billion.

Preserving Tax Breaks for Itself – In 2010, Bacardi sought to engage Congress in its battle to prevent Diageo, the maker of Captain Morgan rum, from developing a rum distillery in the United States Virgin Islands.

2012 – BACARDÍ CELEBRATES 150 YEARS On February 4, the company and BACARDÍ rum celebrate their 150th anniversary – an extraordinary milestone few companies reach.

2018 – PROGRESS FOR PEOPLE AND PLANET Bacardi shares the environmental progress made under the ‘Good Spirited: Building a Sustainable Future’ initiative and expands it to encompass all Corporate Responsibility activity.

2019 CELEBRATING MOMENTS THAT MATTER A new corporate strategy launches with the purpose of celebrating moments that matter, one drink at a time.

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