Havana Club International S.A.: The passion for leading rum

By Yoanna Cervera Hernández

Havana Club International S.A. has an increasingly firm footprint in the present and is looking to the future. Exquisiteness, elegance, tradition, innovation, modernity and Cuban craftsmanship are well-earned attributes preserved by those who guard this knowledge of rum making and also by the leaders of the successful joint venture.

The year 2024 was another good year for the company, as acknowledged by its CEO Frenchman Christian Barré, during an exchange with national and foreign media in Havana.

Numerous awards and recognitions endorse such results in the last year. “We received up to 60 awards for high quality, which makes us proud of the work we do,” he commented. Several international prizes, including 7 medals in the Spirits Business Luxury Spirits Awards and Drinks Business/Spirits Business Autumn Tasting competitions, among others, reinforce Havana Club’s reputation as the most awarded Cuban rum brand in the world.

“There is a passion in our work teams and that is what translates into our markets for HCI to consolidate its leadership,” the CEO highlighted. “It is the third rum brand internationally, still without access to our neighbors to the north, but someday we will get there.”

“We currently have more than 20% participation in the segment we call super premium,” Barré  told the press. “Our company representatives seek that the brand become an emblem of Cuban culture in the world, as part of the best that can be produced in Cuba in terms of quality, experiences and know-how. Our Havana Club rums have a very wide range, we watch over that quality and make sure we are able to transmit that diversity with that tremendous strength, which allows us to use the brand for the preparation of a classic cocktail to a much more contemporary and innovative product of the highest quality.”

Havana Club International is the result of the union of Cuba Ron S.A. and the French company Pernod Ricard, one of the main exporters of wines and spirits in the world. “Currently, the main markets are Germany, France, followed by Spain and Italy; a performance that we can describe as positive,” Christian Barré also argued.

“Last year, 45 million global bottles were produced, which keeps it as the fastest growing in Pernod Ricard’s portfolio,” he specified. “At the moment we are in a more stable phase, although the beverage and spirits market is much more tense now than it was a few years ago, due to the decreases and inflation generated during the pandemic.”

In this sense, the CEO said that as part of the future strategy, the company is working on what it calls “seeding markets.” “We have dynamic growth in China, Mexico, Canada, other Eastern European and Gulf markets, which are important, as they will allow for a much wider geographical footprint.”

He also said that in view of the international crisis scenario and the limitations imposed by the blockade against Cuba and the inclusion by the current U.S. administration of Cuba on the list of alleged state sponsors of terrorism, “The company has a strategy that allows it to face all these situations.”

Although Havana Club’s main objective is to export its products, the presence of its rums on the island is “essential and symbolic,” the CEao stressed. “Cuba represents 20% of sales and for us it is fundamental, because it is the country of origin, where the brand was built, here we are and we will continue to be.”

On the creation of a new, exclusive and limited product, Barré also gave some advance information from the largest rum factory in the world, located in the town of San José, some 30 kilometers from Havana, where the prized  aged dark products are kept.