• Submitted by: manso
• Business and Economy
• 04 / 22 / 2011

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Thursday, April 21, 2011. Despite last month's decision by the United States Court of Appeal to maintain the blockade against Cuba's Havana Club rum in the US, executives of the company are still confident their global market will still allow them to outpace last year's sales.

Executives of the Havana Club rum company are projecting a sales goal of four million nine-litre bottle cases by the end of this year. In 2010, the Havana Club International S.A. (HCI) joint venture sold 3.8 million nine-litre bottle cases according to CubaRon legal adviser Arian Remedios.

President of the CubaRon Corporation, Juan Gonzalez, said this goal was set in spite of the" arbitrary decision" by the US court to not update the marketing license for this brand in that country.

Since 1994, the rum has been produced by Havana Club International, a 50-50 joint venture between Pernod Ricard and the Cuban government.The Havana Club brand is sold outside of Cuba in conjunction with Pernod Ricard Havana Club, but not in the United States, due to its trade embargo against Cuba.

In late March, a U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that Pernod's claim to the Havana Club brand was not valid in the United States because it concerns a trademark used by a business that was nationalized by the Cuban government.

The original brand was established by José Arechabala in 1878 but after the Cuban Revolution of 1959, the distillery and company was nationalized by the Cuban government. Subsequently, the Arechabala family left for Spain, then emigrated to the United States where, in 1994, they entered into an alliance with the Bacardi, and in 1997 sold their residual rights to Havana Club to the Bermuda-based rum producer, including the recipe for the original Havana Club rum.

Despite still being cut off from the US market, which is home to reportedly 40% of the world's rum drinkers, Gonzalez projected that this year's sales would increase due to demands of this product in markets like Asia, particularly that of China.

He also said that Cuba was also expecting to increase Havana Club's positioning in Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Gonzalez added that their industrial capacities were capable of producing exportable volumes worth over US$ 100 million to its main markets.

According to Remedios, Havana Club's current market position is 57% in Europe, 11% in Latin America, 1% in Asia and 31% in Cuba, with a 14% increase as compared to 2009.

He revealed the existence of 948 registries of the product in 186 nations, and said that at present this rum occupies position 22 on the World's Top 100 (world scale of spirits).

In Cuba itself, Remedios pointed out, Havana Club' s link to tourism development on the island made itfourth on the list of brands with the largest annual growth in sales (over 14.9 percent), after the Absolut vodka, and the Johnny Walker and Jameson whiskies.

Source: //www.jamaicaobserver.com/business/