H. Upmann Factory

The H. Upmann operation is easier to trace by its buildings than by its name, both of which changed more than once. Alonso Menendez and Jose Garcia bought a factory on Calle 23 in Vedado in the 1930s, registered Montecristo there in 1935 and added H. Upmann after 1937. In 1944 both brands moved to Calle Amistad, where they stayed for roughly sixty years; after 1959 the premises carried the name of Jose Marti.

Around the turn of the century the Vedado building was extensively restored, with capacity for several hundred rollers, and H. Upmann production returned there in 2004. That arrangement lasted only seven years. Production stopped in 2011 and the workforce was transferred to the Romeo y Julieta factory on Belascoain, where H. Upmann has been rolled since. The Vedado building has remained empty.

The record matters because it is the physical origin point of Montecristo, the largest-selling Havana brand, and because it illustrates how Cuban brand and factory identities have been decoupled: the H. Upmann name survives on cigars rolled in a building that has never carried it. Sources differ on some of the dates and names, so this record is marked reported.