Juan Serralles
Juan Serralles (born c.
1845-
1921 in
Ponce, Puerto Rico) was the founder of what was to become "Serralles Distillers, Inc.", producers of "
Don Q", a world renowned brand of .
Juan Serralles was the son of Sabastian Serralles, a wealthy
Spaniard who settled in Ponce in the early
18th century. The elder Serralles was the owner of "Hacienda Mercedita" and went into the
sugar business. Juan was raised in Ponce and educated in
Spain. When Juan returned to the island, he took charge of the hacienda (
plantation) after his father's death.
The land in Puerto Rico was rich in sugar canes during the 19th and early 20th centuries, and in
1865, Juan imported a
still which he purchased in
France and produced his first few casks of
rum. He named the rum "Don Q" in honor of the legendary Spanish fictional character
Don Quixote. Soon after, the "Don Q" brand of rum became very popular in Puerto Rico and the family business began to grow.
In
1903 the Serralles family, under the leadership of Juan Serralles, installed the first continuous
still in Puerto Rico. Juan Serralles, died in 1921 and the production of rum was halted because of the
United States Prohibition Act of the
1920's. Juan's family continued to run the business and started to produce medical
alcohol. Prohibition, however, did provide an opportunity to many families in the liquor producing business to make enormous fortunes illegally. In the
1930's Juan's son Juan Eugenio Serralles, built an enormous
castle known as the "
Serralles Castle" in their estate. The castle is now a
museum which is open to the public and administored by the City of Ponce.
|
The Serrales Castle in Ponce |
In
1985, Serralles, Inc., under the leadership of Felix Juan Serralles, Sr. purchased Puerto Rican Distillers, Inc from the
Canadian liquor giant
Joseph E. Seagram and Sons, LTD. The acquisitions included manufacturing facilities in
Camuy and
Arecibo plus the brand names sold by Seagrams locally such as: "Palo Viejo", "Ron Llave" and "Granado". Serralles also purchased the rights to produce and distribute the brands of "Ronrico" and "Captain Morgan" in Puerto Rico and the rest of the
Caribbean. These same brands, now produced by Serralles, are distributed in the
United States by Seagrams. Captain Morgan rum is the second largest selling rum in the world after "
Bacardi". Serralles, Inc had more than doubled its sales.
Juan Serralles great-grandson, Felix Juan Serralles, Jr. is now the president and
CEO of Distilerias Serralles, Inc. which produces over 60% of the rum sold in Puerto Rico. In
1998, the annual sales of Serralles. Inc. passed over $100 million. The company has become a large industrial and marketing enterprise that produces and distributes over 80 different product lines worldwide.
Puerto Rico has honored the memory of Juan Serralles by naming a school in Ponce after him.
*
List of famous Puerto Ricans*
Serralles Castle
