The Poor Cuban Boy Who Created Bacardi

even though they still punch hard in the market bacardi has become an underrated name among liquor customers these days when it comes to rum even though they're the ones who made it fashionable why and how did bacardi make rum fashionable we'll find out in today's video the story starts with a boy named fakundo bacardi masso who was the son of a humble bricklayer born in siches in the province of barcelona spain he certainly grew up poor but no details about his early life are known as we fast forward to his arrival in cuba in 1830 alongside his brothers it took a while but eventually in 1843 he would set up his own shop he soon wed lucia amelia victoria moreau a woman from a very affluent family of franco-haitian descent just three months earlier it didn't take long for them to have kids and as such emilio was born in 1844 one in 1846 bokundo jr in 1848 mara in 1851 jose in 1857 and emilia jr in 1861. tragedy would strike soon however juan and mara perished in the 1852 earthquake and cholera epidemic that devastated santiago the earthquake had a magnitude of 7.0 and facundo and amelia made the decision to take the family to catalonia to stay with bokundo's parents for several months in order to protect the lives of their children later that year facundo returned to santiago to find his store looted the economy struggling in the wake of the catastrophe and a global glut of the country's primary export sugar fukundo's company bacundo bacardi compania failed to rebound and filed for bankruptcy in 1855 while cuba at the time did not lack natural disasters it did lack one thing and that was good quality rum facundo started experimenting with the rum distillation process after spotting a demand in the spirits industry for a premium cuban rum as rum used to be a nasty inferior beverage compared to red wine and whiskey jose leon bottier a french cuban assisted fukundo as he started experimenting with different distillation techniques a proprietary single yeast strain a parallel distillation process charcoal filtration and white oak barrel aging were combined with revolutionary rum making techniques to produce a much more sophisticated milder drink that they were able to sell with success through fukundo's brother's general store using money provided by fukundo's younger brother jose the partners formed the company bacardi boutique and company on february 4th 1862 and bought a distillery outside of santiago facundo bacardi recognized the value of effective branding after running a general retail company in cuba for many years his innovative rum would benefit from this strategy his wife amelia also suggested using a bat as a logo after spotting a colony of fruit bats hanging in the distillery rafters taking it as a sign of family harmony good fortune and health he started signing each shipment of rum with a bold bacardi m for bacardi masso the company changed its name to bacardi and company in 1874. jose the younger brother of fukundo decided to sell his shares and as boutie's health deteriorated his sons invested some of their own money and purchased the majority of boutie's steak bacardi's rum gained recognition as it spread throughout cuba and even the rest of the world after taking top honors in international competitions fukundo retired in 1877 and gave his sons control of the business cuban history experienced political up evil in the years that followed as the nation fought spanish imperialism cuba had been an imperial subject of spain for a very long time bokundo generally supported the spanish but emilio who was in charge of the company and was heavily involved in politics and the struggle for cuban independence raised suspicions from the authorities facundo and emilio were taken into custody during one of the many sweeps conducted by the loyalist security services the business was run by the remaining brothers during emilio's four-year incarceration while fukundo was released with emilio giving strategic counsel from the distance facundo passed away peacefully in 1886. long before cuba achieved its independence with u.s intervention and his sons had to deal with the spanish colonial government until 1898. the original cuba libre and the daiquiri cocktails were both developed with the then cuban-based bacardi rum at the end of the cuban war of independence when the u.s was in control of cuba success and fame soon followed and emilio bacardi was elected as santiago's first democratic mayor in 1899 emilio built schools and hospitals finished city projects like the well-known padre pico street and the bacardi dam provided funding for parks and adorned santiago with statues and monuments while serving in public office also started around this time was the company's international expansion by opening bottling plants in barcelona 1910 and new york city his brother fukundo m bacardi j continued to run the organization in santiago 1916. the prohibition era closure of the new york plant concided with a boom in u.s tourism to cuba which led to a period of rapid growth for the bacardi company and the emergence of the cocktail culture in america after prohibition bacardi started making ramen puerto rico in 1936. this allowed the company to sell rum duty-free in the united states the establishment of bacardi imports incorporated in manhattan new york city in 1944 marked the company's later expansion into the united states the good times continued to roll the bacardi family backed and helped the rebels during the cuban revolution in 1959 however the family continued to fiercely oppose fidel castro's policies in cuba in the 1960s after the revolutionary's victory and his turn to communism the family and the company left cuba in exile after the cuban government arbitrarily seized their cuban assets on october 14 1960 nationalizing all private property on the island and outlawing all bank accounts according to tom gelton's book bacardi in the long fight for cuba bacardi now had a score to settle after being banished from their motherland it had to develop quickly in order to combat the world's most audacious communist government once bacardi had established itself successfully it started to divert a sizable portion of its profits toward achieving its single objective the overthrow of fidel castro and cuban communism in order to ensure that fidel castro was unable to gain from bacardi's unique processes company executives decided to enact a particular self-destruction mechanism the last of the yeast cells that particular breed discovered 150 years ago from the roots of a sugarcane plant that made bacardi what it was had their genetic code for bacardi rum successfully destroyed a nationalized bacardi could not compete and sustain the castro government from then on prior to the revolution the company moved the ownership of its trademarks assets and secret recipes out of the country to the bahamas and had already started producing bacardi rum at other distillery locations in puerto rico and mexico due to worries about the previous cuban leader fulgenzio batista after the cuban government unlawfully confiscated all of bacardi's assets there this assisted the company in surviving the helms burton act which tightened the u.s embargo against cuba was actively drafted with input from bacardi's attorneys in 1965 over a century after the company was founded in cuba bacardi planted new routes and relocated its global headquarters to hamilton bermuda the company has continued to endure since then section 211 of the omnibus consolidated and emergency appropriations act also referred to as the bacardi act was drafted in 1999 by auto reich a lobbyist in washington working for the bacardi brand section 211 did not grant trademark protection to goods produced by cuban companies that were seized following the revolution the havana club brand in the united states was the target of the act jose rachabala sa created the brand which was then unjustly taken over by the government during the cuban revolution the archibala family then fled the country and the rum was no longer produced as a result they permitted the havana club u.s trademark registration to expire in 1973. the cuban government registered the mark in the united states in 1976 by taking advantage of the lapse thus bacardi remains in control of its own destiny from bermuda [Music] drinks made by bacardi are not widely available in cuba today the primary rum brand in cuba is havana club the archibald family the brand's original owners later sold it to bacardi with the exception of the united states and its territories the havana club products are sold internationally by the cuban government in collaboration with the french firm pernade return based on the original recipe from the archibala family bacardi developed the real havana club rom produces it in puerto rico and markets it in the u.s bacardi is still fighting in the courts to have its own havana club trademark recognized outside of the us fukundo l bacardi is the current chairman of the company owing to its rich family history and the constitution of the bacardi family itself in coral gables florida bacardi usa leased a 15-story office building in 2006. seven buildings in miami-dade county housed employees of bacardi at the time the former bacardi headquarters buildings on biscayne boulevard in midtown miami have been demolished the national young arts foundation's headquarters are currently located in the structure 19 million nine liter cases of bacardi rum were sold globally in volume in 2021 as the entire liquor industry has benefited from a sales boost from lockdowns so has bacardi with well-known brands like bacardi rum and patron bacardi was planning to introduce over 40 new products in 2021 which according to a brand spokesperson would have been a record for the company's long history a large number of the launches have been and will continue to be in popular sub-categories like ready to drink rtd and low alcohol by volume labv low abv bacardi has increased the number of rtd and low abv product launches by three and four times respectively in the first few months of 2021 compared to the entire year of 2020 pete carr president of bacardi north america told modern retail that bacardi is investing heavily in new products in anticipation of the fact that quote people have been pent up they're excited to go out they're excited to see friends i think this is going to be big it's going to be like the roaring 20s according to alcohol research firm iwsr alcohol was one of the many industries that saw a significant shift to online sales in 2020 with e-commerce alcohol sales reaching 5.6 billion dollars or 5.5 billion euros up 87 from 2019 as a result a lot of the investments and acquisitions made in the alcohol industry in 2020 were aimed at improving e-commerce and delivery capabilities however bacardi plans to emphasize moments of reconnection in its marketing more than its delivery and e-commerce capabilities because people have been yearning for the return of in-person events the rum business is now fiercely competitive therefore major players are working to develop new rum products in order to gain a competitive edge in the market to meet the growing demand for rum they are primarily focused on producing premium and ultra premium rum product lines market participants are concentrating on r d to develop numerous new rum flavors for instance bacardi launched its bacardi ocho premium rum brand in july 2019 specifically for indian customers given the conservative nature of the indian liquor market its success was significant one of the most well-liked alcoholic beverages used to make a variety of cocktails such as the mojito and daiquiri rum is a versatile blender that is essential for every well-stocked bar because of its sweet flavor it can be found in a variety of beverages from fantastic tiki drinks to cozy winter drinks bacardi has played one of the most significant roles in fostering this rum culture and we'll keep doing so have you already heard of the story of bacardi and are there any other details that you would have added to this video share it in the comments and if you'd like to see more inspiring business videos then make sure to check out our channel

Channel: Business Stories

Views: 18,891

Keywords: Business Stories, Bacardi, Facundo Bacardi masso, Facundo Bacardi family tree, Facundo Bacardi, Bacardi ceo, bacardi founder, bacardi founders, bacardi brand history, bacardi brand story, bacardi history, bacardi rum history, bacardi documentary, bacardi story, full story of bacardi, the history of bacardi

Id: Nw1B34YamW4

Length: 13min 59sec (839 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 12 2022