Grupo Leon Jimenes
 |
|
| Private | |
| Industry |
Brewing Tobacco industry Banking |
| Founded | 1903 |
| Headquarters | Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic |
|
Key people
|
José León Asensio, President (Chairman) |
| Products | Beer Cigars Cigarrettes |
| Revenue | ~ US$600 million |
| Website | http://www.glj.com.do |
Grupo León Jimenes, C. por A., is one of the largest companies in the Dominican Republic with annual revenue of approximately $600 million and is headquartered in Santo Domingo. This corporation enjoys virtual monopolies in two local markets—beer and cigarettes—as well as having banking and printing operations. It brews Presidente, Bohemia, Miller and Heineken beers, and makes Marlboro cigarettes. It is also the parent company of La Aurora S.A., the maker of Aurora and León Jimenes cigars. The executive vice-president of La Aurora S.A. is Guillermo León Herbert.
In 1903 Eduardo León Jimenes opened a cigar factory in the Dominican Republic, making La Auroras cigars. The country was an undeveloped Caribbean nation, and had only gained independence from Haiti in 1844 after twenty-two years of occupation, and from Spain in 1865, after four years of colonial reannexation. Fine cigars, in the eyes of the world, came from Cuba and nowhere else. While today the Dominican Republic has stabilized as the most advanced of the major cigar-producing countries, the past century saw border disputes with neighboring Haiti, occupation by American troops, dictatorship and civil revolt. In the early 1900s, the country was mired in debt, and no one considered it a vacation destination. Because his father, Antonio León, was a tobacco grower, the 20-something-year-old figured on abundant raw material to make cigars for the local market. The factory was located in Guazumal, near Tamboril, which is now famous for its cigar rollers. Some tobacco came from that area, and other fields were in Gurabo, Jacagua and El Ingenio, five or six miles away. In 1903, the Dominican Republic still had dirt roads and in order to make cigars La Aurora had to pack tobacco in wood and ship it by donkey. The rainy season created a quagmire. The beasts of burden trudged through the muck to deliver tobacco to the tiny fábrica. The first La Auroras were perfectos, pointed at each end with a bulbous middle. The cigars were called preferidos. Sales, like the cigars, were entirely Dominican.
...
Wikipedia