Havana Club International

Stock performance

History

The Havana Club rum brand was created in the 1930s by the Arechabala family, whose distillery was nationalized after the 1959 revolution. The Cuban state kept producing the rum, and in 1993 formed Havana Club International as a 50-50 joint venture with France's Pernod Ricard to take it global. The brand has since been the subject of a decades-long trademark battle in the United States with Bacardi, which sells its own Puerto Rico-made rum under the Havana Club name there.

Business model

The rum is distilled and aged in Cuba, while Pernod Ricard's global distribution network markets and sells it in more than 120 countries. The joint venture shares profits between the Cuban state partner and Pernod Ricard.

Market position

Havana Club is one of the best-selling rum brands in the world outside the United States and one of the most successful Cuban export brands, competing with Bacardi, Captain Morgan, and other international rums.

Country impact

Havana Club is one of the clearest examples of Cuba's joint-venture model working at scale, bringing in foreign marketing expertise and steady hard-currency earnings. Its US trademark dispute is a long-running symbol of the economic conflict between Cuba and the United States.