Havana Club opens rum distillery in Cuba

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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