CUBA BRIEF
BACARDI JOINS THE ANTI-CORONA VIRUS STRUGGLE
The Bacardi Rum Company, one of the largest Rum producers, has tweaked its production lines to pump out ethanol needed to make hand sanitizers.
Olein Refinery, a Puerto Rican manufacturer, is using the Bacardi alcohol to produce more than 1.7 million 10 oz bottles of hand sanitizers, much of which is being donated to police, nurses, and non-profits in the forefront of the Corona Virus fight.
Jose Class, Vice Pres. of supply chain and manufacturing for Bacardi, said that: “he didn’t think that something like this was even done during World War II.”
Bacardi’s sprawling 127 acre complex in Cataño, Puerto Rico, produces eighty percent of the company’s rum, or some 200 Million bottles a year, and employs about 400 people.
According to Rick Wilson, Esq., Bacardi’s General Counsel and Sr. Vice President, other Bacardi sites are following suit. The Bacardi branch in Jacksonville, Florida will begin producing 120,000 units of hand sanitizer this week, all of which will be donated. And eight other plants in six other countries are expected to join the effort.
After hurricanes Maria and Irma devastated Puerto Rico in 2017, Bacardi donated $3 Million into relief efforts.
The temporary production shift began March 17 and will continue as long as needed – and it won’t affect rum production, the company emphasized.
