In its 150th year Bacardi remembers illegal confiscation of Cuban assets 52 years ago

Did Fidel Castro even spare a thought on 15 October this year that his soldiers botched the takeover of Bacardi’s Cuban assets exactly 52 years ago? After the Communist government announced that it was nationalising sugar mills and rum factories – including the island’s most famous business, Bacardi – Cuban soldiers immediately headed to Bacardi’s office in Havana with a one-page official document that gave them control. However, the soldiers made a crucial mistake. They went not only to the wrong building but also to the wrong city.

As the Los Angeles Times has the story, "Bacardi’s headquarters and production facility were in Santiago, on the other side of the country. The marines responsible for seizing Bacardi had to catch a commercial flight to get there, and by the time they did, Bacardi’s most valuable possession, its yeast, was gone from Cuba." The yeast strain had already been shipped out of the country and anything left behind had been killed, completely – not a cell left alive.

Today, the Bacardi yeast strain lives on in refrigerators at plants in Puerto Rico and Mexico, where Bacardi had the foresight to send it before Castro’s takeover.

Although the communists soon began making rum in the old Bacardi facility, even calling the rum "Bacardi," the Cuban government eventually lost all the trademark battles in courts around the world and was forced to switch to the brand name it uses today: Havana Club.

These days, Bacardi is headquartered on Bermuda, less than 2000 km away from Cuba. From there it sent out a press release on 15 October 2012 which 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. "While that event was an extraordinary event in the company’s history after being nearly 100 years in Cuba, it became a critical turning point to propel the family-owned company and its signature rum brand to take on a greater international profile," the statement says.

"This turned Bacardi into the globally recognized brand it is today. In fact, within 20 years following the loss of the company’s assets in Cuba, Bacardi rum became the number-one premium distilled spirits brand in the United States," the company boasts .

In 2011, Bacardi was the fifth ranking spirits brand globally with 19.5 million cases (9 litres each) sold. In total it sold about 35 million cases, which makes it the number three spirits company behind Diageo (118 million cases) and Pernod Ricard (102 million cases) according to Nomura, a bank.

Bacardi’s brand portfolio also includes Grey Goose vodka, Dewar’s blended Scotch whisky, Bombay Sapphire gin, Martini vermouth plus another 200 or so brands and labels.

The company operates 27 production facilities, including bottling, distilling,

and manufacturing facilities, located in 16 countries including Puerto Rico,

Scotland, Italy, France, Spain, Germany and Mexico. In 2009, its turnover was USD 4.4 billion according to Datamonitor.