Jamajka

Historie

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Nearby is the Hampden Estate, a working plantation, rum distillery and sugar factory, complete with great house. Built in 1799, the great house is very impressive and unusual whitewashed structure with dark timbers and mansard roof. The sugar factory (working 24 hours a day) is open between January and July, while the distillery operates and is open for tours February to October.

Hampden Sugar Estate has been privately owned and operated since it was built in the 1930s. The estate began to experience financial difficulties more than a decade ago, and despite Government's intervention through the Development Bank of Jamaica, with a capital injection of million, the situation continued to deteriorate, to the extent that the estate went into receivership on December 21, 1999. This, however, did not halt the deterioration and Government, through the Sugar Company of Jamaica, took over the running of the estate on April 19, 2002.

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The factory is in an advanced stage of deterioration, with a 90-year-old boiler, a 62-year-old clarifier, among other things. Hampden, which has the capacity to produce 15,000 tonnes of sugar per crop, and was producing to capacity in the late '70s and '80s, in the 2001/2002 crop year, produced only 5,000 tonnes of sugar. [...]

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The decision to rationalise the operations of the two factories in Trelawny will result in improved efficiency in the overall milling operations, based on the higher throughput to the single factory. In addition, the closure will allow for greater focus to be placed on the operations of the distillery, which is currently being upgraded to facilitate enhanced efficiency in Hampden's rum manufacturing enterprise, given that there is a ready and lucrative market to be exploited in this area.

[...] The higher-ester examples, such as Hampden's DOK mark, starts with 500-esters rum and then redistill, it a second time to concentrate the esters still further but, crucially, don't include any fusel oils. [...]

While we see it necessary to close the Hampden factory, we are very confident about the future of Hampden. Our decision to terminate milling operations at the Hampden factory is complemented by plans to increase the utilisation of the distillery and the cane lands at the Hampden Division. The estate will be restructured and reorganised to concentrate on rum production and cane farming.

Most of you would be aware that the Hampden distillery produces bulk rum, which commands premium prices on the international market. Major customers are domiciled in Germany, Holland and Scotland. The demand for Hampden rum is normally greater than output and the operations have been consistently profitable.

While the distillery currently receives several services from the sugar factory we are confident that the profitability of the rum business will be enhanced from the reorganisation and streamlining of the distillery operated as an autonomous entity. The distillery will take delivery of cane juice from the Long Pond factory and, as is currently the case, will source molasses from Caribbean Molasses. Power was being supplied by the factory in a very inefficient manner and closure will allow for streamlining and sizing of the diesel unit to supply power in the most cost effective manner.

We are also pursuing plans to supplement the sale of bulk rum with the sale of a limited quantity of high value branded rum. This initiative will be pursued as part of an EU grant funded project through the West Indies Rum and Spirits Pool Association.

Hampden Estate was closed in December, 2002.