More News from Barbancourt
Haiti’s Rhum Barbancourt Suffers Quake Damage
Dan Marsteller
Posted: January 25, 2010
Rhum Barbancourt’s Port-au-Prince distillery will not resume production for at least a month following significant damage sustained during the Haitian capital’s recent earthquake. One of the facility’s exterior walls fell, and barrels of aging rum were destroyed along with equipment inside the plant. Two of Rhum Barbancourt’s employees died in the quake, while around one-fifth of its staff of 430 lost their homes, the distiller said.
Immediate supply disruption of Rhum Barbancourt in the U.S. will likely be lessened by the fact that the producer shipped stock the day before the earthquake, but when precisely the distillery will again be up and running is uncertain. The company recently formed a long-term distribution pact with Crillon Importers, making the New Jersey-based importer Barbancourt’s exclusive North American distributor.