Bermuda-based beverages giant Bacardi is looking forward to returning some operations to Cuba once the US embargo of the country is lifted.

Bacardi was expelled from the Caribbean island in 1959, after the revolution which brought Fidel Castro to power. Since then, the company has set up a head office in Pitts Bay Road, as well as a distillery in Puerto Rico and other offices in Miami.

Speaking to the just-drinks website, company president Joaquin Bacardi said: “Rest assured, when the embargo lifts, Bacardi is going to have a presence in Cuba again some day. There is absolutely no question of that.”

However, Mr Bacardi said not all the company’s rum production would be likely to move to Cuba.

“We have a lot of (distilling) assets around the world,” he was quoted as saying. “It’s going to take a balance between what products should come out of Cuba and what products should come from our existing facilities — there will likely be a combination of those.

“We are hopeful that the facilities (Bacardi owned before the revolution) that exist in Cuba will be returned to us. We have all the documentation to prove that property is ours.

“Because that property has been abandoned for so many years — although it is being operated to produce other rums — we know that the conditions of that operation are very poor; they don’t maintain it very well. So, it’s going to require a significant capital investment.”

The Cuban Government, through its Cuba Ron unit, jointly owns and produces the Havana Club rum brand in the country with Pernod Ricard. The two spirits companies have been in long-running legal disagreement over the Havana Club trademark, with Bacardi selling a rum by the same name in Florida. Pernod and Cuba Ron own the trademark in almost all markets outside the US.