In its 150th anniversary yearlong celebration, Bacardi celebrates its tremendous success as the world’s largest privately-held spirits company and the incredible drive and perseverance it took to get there following the illegal confiscation of its assets in Cuba on October 15, 1960 – 52 years ago.
It event was an extraordinary event, after nearly 100 years of being in Cuba, but it enabled the family-owned Company and its namesake BACARDÍ® rum to become an international brand, while Cuba remained stuck in 1960. Within 20 years following the nationalization of the company’s assets by Cuban communists, BACARDÍ rum became the number-one premium distilled spirits brand in the United States. Less than a year after that, it was the number-one selling spirit brand in the world.
From humble beginnings in Santiago de Cuba in 1862, Bacardi – the family, Company and brand – succeeded despite tremendous personal and political upheaval in its first 100 years including war, bankruptcy and prohibition. In 1910 it became Cuba's first multinational company
The threats by Fulgencio Batista’s government during the 1940s-50s, which included his decision to nationalize Bacardi for one day, propelled Bacardi executives to safeguard their intellectual property, secret formula and proprietary yeast critical to making their rum, by moving them out of Cuba.
On October 13th, 1960, the new Cuban Revolutionary Government, which had come to power in 1959, approved Law 890 nationalizing all major industries and putting to an end to private property in Cuba. Besides foreign-owned property and entities, nearly 400 Cuban-owned companies, including banks and manufacturing facilities, were also illegally seized.
On October 14th, Cuban regime army officers headed to the Bacardi sales office in Havana with a single-page document claiming control of the Cuban company. But the new Cuban government made a critical error, and the repercussions live on in the world of rum today. The officers went to the wrong building and the wrong city of Havana. The Bacardi headquarters and production facility were in Santiago, on the other side of the country. Those responsible for seizing Bacardi had to catch a flight to get to Santiago and that gave Bacardi a 24-hour heads-up to destroy all of the signature yeast which gives their rum its taste and consistency; thereby preventing anyone else from ever making BACARDI rum in Cuba.
The following day, on October 15th, officials of the revolutionary government showed up at the Bacardi headquarters in Santiago and forced Bacardi executives to sign an 'Expropriation Document.' With the stroke of a pen, the company&'s Cuban assets were confiscated and the Bacardi family lost what had taken 98-years to build.
Bacardi already had already established operations in four other markets - the U.S., Mexico, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas - and the trademarks and the BACARDI yeast were safely out of Cuba before the revolutionary forces took control. The coveted strain of yeast remains under tight security.
Because of their foresight and quick action, what might have been a devastating loss for Bacardi actually enabled Bacardi to remain family-owned and regroup to become the third largest international spirits company selling globally recognized and iconic brands and labels in more than 150 countries.
“Had we not taken such steps to protect our assets, we may not have established the footholds in other markets that helped propel BACARDÍ rum to the forefront of spirits industry. Those decisions by Bacardi executives more than five decades ago helped take the Company to new heights and strategically positioned to acquire an international portfolio of great-tasting spirits,” said Ed Shirley, President and CEO of family-owned Bacardi Limited, with its global headquarters in Bermuda.
Bacardi remains proud of its Cuban heritage and looks forward to a time when it can return and reinvest in its homeland and help Cuba move into the modern world.