page_title: José Arechabala S.A.
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: José Arechabala S.A. / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Museo de Arte Colonial, Havana, Cuba Deutsch: Museo de Arte Colonial, Havanna, Kuba Español: Museo de Arte Colonial, La Habana, Cuba
context_page_description: José Arechabala S.A. was one of the largest Cuban conglomerates within the sugar and alcoholic beverages industries. Headquartered in Cárdenas, Matanzas, it was particularly famous for the launch and production of the Havana Club rum from 1934 until 1960.
context_section_description: José Arechabala Aldama established a distillery with the name La Vizcaya in 1878 in Cárdenas, Matanzas, Cuba leveraging the molasses residue from sugar refining to produce rum and other liquors, on top of providing logistic services in the port of Cárdenas (warehouses and sea transport). Its swift development allowed it to cope with the losses due to the Faquineto hurricane in 1888, which amounted up to 50.000 pesos of the time (around $US 2 million today). Its expansión continued despite the Cuban Independence war (where Cárdenas was the first location bombed by the US Navy), the Cuban independence from Spain and the crisis that hit the island those years.
  The group continued growing, launching new businesses as they were required, all of them within the Cárdenas vicinity, and increasing the community welfare, as it happened with the public lighting, started in 1889  and in which José Arechabala S.A. took an important part. By 1919, the group already included a power plant, sugar refineries and a barrel production facility, while the distillery was then producing daily 23.600 litres of rum and 80.000  litres of other spirits and still managed schooners and warehouses.
  All the businesses were incorporated under José Arechabala S.A. name on the 18th January 1921. The founder became its first Chairman while his son in law (and nephew), José Arechabala Sainz (see Spanish naming customs), became Managing Director. The Arechabala facilities in the Cárdenas shore (south of Varadero, just where the Hicacos Peninsula joins the mainland) extended over 150 acres.
  José Arechabala died on 15 March 1923 and his successor as Chairman (and still Managing Director), José Arechabala Sainz, was assassinated only a few months later, in September 1924. The subsequent successor, Gabriel Malet (another son in law of the founder) also died before long, in 1926. It was then when Tomás Pita y Álvarez (the third son in law of Arechabala) took over as the Chairman and José Fermín Iturrioz (who was also a member of the Arechabala family, as he was the son of one of Arechabala nieces, and he was his godson) was appointed Managing Director. 
  At that time, Prohibition in the United States was still in force, preventing any alcohol exports to the largest market, albeit several negotiations with American authorities (in which José Arechabala S.A. participation was key) secured a 22% quota on sugar imports into the United States, to be split proportionally among the cuban producers. In 1932 Cuba exported 435.000 tons of sugar to the United States, 30% of which was José Arechabala S.A.
  Just when the Prohibition was about to be repealed, another Category 5 major hurricane hit Cárdenas. On 1 September 1933, the 1933 Cuba–Brownsville hurricane reached the Matanzas shore causing numerous damages and hundreds of deaths. Arechabala suffered losses then in excess of 500.000 pesos.
  The company reacted swiftly and by the 19th march  1934 (festivity of St. Joseph, the founder’s patron) a new rum production plant was inaugurated, with the sole purpose of launching the Havana Club and Doubloon Rum brands, targeted for the American market. Arechabala Havana Club soon became the international benchmark for Cuban rum. On the 29th May 1935 José Arechabala S.A. opened a new office building and its ‘’Bar Privado’’ (the ‘’Havana Club’’) across the Havana Cathedral. It soon became one of the key hotspots for locals and tourists in Havana, as Graham Greene let the protagonist James Wormold mention in its Our Man in Havana novel: “at the Havana Club he felt a citizen of Havana”. Receptions to the Athletic Bilbao team that had recently won the Spanish League (in July 1935) or to the Juan Sebastián Elcano officers when they laid over in Havana during their IX instruction cruise (in April 1936)  were other examples of its popularity.
  During the 40s and the 50s the corporation continued its expansion into other businesses, such as fuel production, shipyard, jam factory, a yeast plant or even a bagasse paper mill. This time the leadership was in the hands of Carmela Arechabala, the
caption: Palacio de los Condes de Bayona, where Arechabala set its Bar Privado Havana Club, opposite to the Havana Cathedral.
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