Reprinted from Caribbean Net News
caribbeannetnews.com

Havana Club opens rum distillery in Cuba

Thursday, January 11, 2007

by: Mary Jane Credeur

ATLANTA, USA (Bloomberg): Pernod Ricard SA's Havana Club International unit is to open a new distillery in Cuba to expand sales of its dark-aged rums.

The new distillery is located in San Jose, Cuba, about 30 kilometers from Havana, the unit of Paris-based Pernod Ricard said Tuesday in an e-mailed statement. The facility is 170,000 square meters, the equivalent of 35 football fields, and can fill 12,000 bottles per hour.

Havana Club, which is the second-largest rum brand in Europe, sold 2.6 million cases of rum in 2006, and expects to grow the brand to 5 million cases by 2013. The rum isn't available in the US because of Cuban trade embargoes.

Havana Club International is a joint venture between Cuba Ron SA, which produces the rum, and Pernod Ricard, which promotes and distributes it. Havana Club is among the top 15 brands owned by Pernod Ricard, which also makes Wild Turkey, Pernod and Jacob's Creek.

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