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E. León Jimenes

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E. León Jimenes
Logo for the holding company E. León Jimenes
Private
ISIN🆔
IndustryInvestment Management
Founded 📆1903
Founder 👔Eduardo León Jimenes
Headquarters 🏙️Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Area served 🗺️
Key people
Jorge Aguayo, Chairman
Marcos Jorge León, CEO
Members
Number of employees
🌐 Websitehttps://eleonjimenes.com
📇 Address
📞 telephone

E. León Jimenes, S.A. is a holding vehicle controlled by the León family with a multi-decade track record of investing in and building iconic companies in the consumer sector in Latin America. This corporation was historically involved in mainly two markets —beverages and tobacco—. The company's beverage portfolio includes a minority participation in 'Cervecería Nacional Dominicana, S.A., owner of Presidente, the top-selling beer brand in the Caribbean, in partnership withAnheuser-Busch InBev'. E. León Jimenes, S.A. has a diversified portfolio with investments in consumer, telecommunications, healthcare, industrials, and other sectors.

History[edit]

In 1903, Eduardo Antonio León Jimenes (Guazumal, Tamboril, Santiago, 1884-1937) founded La Aurora, a cigar factory in the Dominican Republic. The factory was located in the community of Don Pedro, Guazumal, near Tamboril, which is now famous for its cigar rollers. His father, Antonio Gavino León González (1848-1914), had purchased tobacco lands in Guazumal from the Hernandez and Polanco families of Tamboril at the end of the XIX century. Some tobacco came from that area, and other fields were in Gurabo, Jacagua and El Ingenio, five or six miles away. At the time, 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.

In 1903, the Dominican Republic still had dirt roads, which made transportation difficult, and to make cigars La Aurora had to pack tobacco in wood containers and ship them 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 Aurora’s cigars were perfectos, pointed at each end with a bulbous middle. The cigars were called preferidos. Sales, like the cigars, were entirely Dominican. In 1912, Herminio León Jimenes – Eduardo’s brother – suggested moving the fabric to Santiago; said move was made during the end of that year.

Civil strife shut down production at times before La Aurora's 30th anniversary. U.S. military forces marched into the Dominican Republic and occupied the country from 1916 to 1924. Various local generals vied for power and civilians took the streets. With the revolutions and the uproar, the company was sometimes forced to stop production. In 1930, just a few months before the movement that ended the government of President Horacio Vazquez and the acquisition of power by General Rafael Trujillo, the company La Aurora was transformed into E. León Jimenes, C. por A., which was created with the purpose of acquiring La Aurora cigar factory, along with the exclusive rights to use its trademarks and commercial names.

In 1930, General Rafael Trujillo seized power from President Horacio Vazquez, creating a dictatorship that lasted for more than three decades. Trujillo brought order to the country, but business opportunities became limited. La Aurora wanted to expand from cigars into the lucrative cigarette trade business, but Trujillo owned the only company that was producing cigarettes at the time and was actively monopolizing the production and commercialization of tobacco. Despite these restrictive conditions, E. León Jimenes, C. por A. decided to ask Trujillo permission to produce cigarettes. At first, his answer was positive, however it shortly became a resounding no, as he passed laws making it impossible for new entrants to compete due to the highly elevated duties.

In 1937, after the death of Eduardo León Jimenes, father and founder, the family union, love for work, and faith in God bequeathed to his descendants was fundamental for the optimal progress and growth of the company.

Growth and expansion[edit]

Trujillo's assassination in 1961 created more civil unrest, but it did provide an opportunity for E. León Jimenes, C. por A., including La Aurora cigar factory, to expand. As soon as Trujillo was killed, the directives of E. León Jimenes, C. por A. began to establish contracts, new relationships and build its first cigarette factory. The 1960s, with its airs of freedom and innovation, led to the consolidation of the company. From the rural community of Don Pedro, Guazumal, in 1903, with around five workers and a production of 600 cigars per day, the enterprise consolidated its prestige based on its excellent confection, and a superior quality that was evidenced in its texture, smell and flavor, which later allowed it to compete with other brands more known and powerful. Its cigars’ brand offer grew, new marketing and distribution strategies were applied, practices of good citizenship and remuneration to staff were systematized, and the subscribed capital was increased, incorporating new shareholders.

By April 1963 was inaugurated its cigarette factory, and by 1969, six years later, E. León Jimenes, C. por A. forged a relationship with Philip Morris International, the biggest fabricator – worldwide – of cigars, by means of the subscription of an association contract. As a result of the new partnership with Philip Morris, the company initiated production of internationally recognized brands with the launch of Marlboro in the Dominican Republic, in October 1969, the best-selling cigarette in the world. Four years later, the Nacional brand was incorporated, which was the first cigar of blond tobacco harvested in the country, which later became a market leader.

The money from cigarettes began to turn E. León Jimenes, C. por A. – by means of La Aurora – into a dominant force in the country and it steered the company toward its next grand venture in beer. In July 1979, the Sociedad Cervecera Nacional, S.A. was created. Later, it changed its name to Cervecería Bohemia, S.A., which was controlled in its majority by E. León Jimenes, C. por A., introducing brands such as Bohemia, Heineken and Malta Löwenbräu to the country. In 1980, E. León Jimenes purchased a brewery in Alaska, and shipped the brewery by boat to the Caribbean. The first year the company captured 28 percent of the market. In January 1986, a very important year for the company, E. León Jimenes, C. por A. was able to buy out its largest competitor, Cervecería Nacional Dominicana, S.A., known by its king brand Presidente, allowing it to control nearly 98 percent of the market. Amid 1986, Cervecería Bohemia, S.A. merged with Cervecería Nacional Dominicana, S.A. Later on, Malta Morena was relaunched.

With the incorporation of Cervecería Nacional Dominicana, S.A. to the growing group of companies controlled by E. León Jimenes, C. por A., an ambitious program of maintenance, modernization and substantial investments initiated, including the creation of new areas to get intimately involved in the maintenance of Cervecería Nacional Dominicana, S.A. in a prominent place within the national industry. In the 1990s, new markets were reached with the exportation of the king brand Presidente to the Caribbean nations and the United States of America. Likewise, the exportation of cigars to some countries of Europe, Asia and America was initiated.

Centro León in Santiago.

Twentyfirst century[edit]

In 2002 the marketing magazine Mercado says that results of a survey conducted by Read & Asociados rank Empresa Leon Jimenez as "the most admired company" in the Dominican Republic, followed by Banco Popular and Codetel. In 2003 Empresa León Jimenes inaugurated a 10-story, $10 million corporate office building in Santo Domingo, publishing two books, and opening a cultural center in Santiago. The shrinkage of the cigar segment among the company's holdings continued, as León Jimenes expanded its banking business by acquiring the fourth-largest bank in the Dominican Republic in the same year. Expanding its reach so that it does not depend solely on regulated interests is part of a conscious strategy at León Jimenes. At a ceremony attended by then President Hipólito Mejía on 2 December 2003, the Leon Jimenes family announced the creation of the Banco León, which will represent a union between the Banco Profesional and Banco Nacional de Credito (Bancredito).[1]

On 25 May 2011 Guillermo León purchased the remaining shares of the La Aurora and León Jimenes brands from Grupo León.[2]

On 16 April 2012 Anheuser-Busch InBev's Brazilian unit AmBev agreed to buy a controlling stake in the Dominican Republic-based brewer Cerveceria Nacional Dominicana (CND) from Grupo Leon Jimenes for over $1.2 billion, forming the biggest beverage company in the Caribbean.[3]

Notes[edit]

  1. DR1 Daily News, 3 December 2003
  2. Minato, Charlie (TheCigarFeed). "News: La Aurora Purchased by Guillermo León". 26 May 2011. Archived 8 July 2019 at the Wayback Machine
  3. "AmBev to buy control of Dominican brewer CND". Reuters. Retrieved 8 May 2012.

External links[edit]

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  • List & Ranking of Leon Jimenes Cigars [1]

References[edit]


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