From “Parc à Jacques” to Savanna
At the end of the 17th century,
one of the first population home base of Reunion Island were the
lands around the pond in the foothills of the mountains surrounding
Saint-Paul. On the soils of the district of Savanna - formerly
named “Parc à Jacques” or “Pond’s
end”, foodstuffs, rice or sugar cane were harvested. This
was the very place where the Big
House of Savanna, also named White
House was standing.
At the beginning of the 19th century, M. Oliver Lemarchand repurchased
the lands and its estate which became the Savanna Sugar Domain. In 1876, the
Savanna Sugar Domain turned out as a company
and during the 1870’s the name of distillery began to get used
to define the estate and its business activity
Sir Emile Hugot (1904-1993)
Born in 1904, Emile Hugot
entered the Paris Central School of Arts & Manufacturing
in 1923.
Back in Reunion Island, he began its career in the sugar industry as representative
administrator first for the Adam de Villiers Company in 1932, then for
the Eperon and Savanna Company in 1934.
As the Bourbon Sugar Refinery’s Chairman
since its creation in 1948 and thanks to his many publications on the sugar
cane industry, Hugot became one of the world most famous referees in this
field. What is more, he stood as a strong decision-maker in the sugar cane
industry in Reunion Island and stayed in office until 1979.
From Savanna…
In 1892, thanks to a successful deal conclusion with
an important German customer – market leader in Germany seeking
for a rum supplier, Distillerie de Savanna bought a distillation workshop
only aiming at producing and manufacturing light rum dedicated to exportation.
For Distillerie de Savanna, this purchase
was the trigger of its rum development in a technological viewpoint since
as of 1892, Distillerie de Savanna fostered the diversification and enhanced
the quality of its production.
… to Bois-Rouge
In 1992, following the start of the Centrale Thermique
de Bois Rouge (the Bois Rouge Power station), Reunion Island first
power station mixing charcoal and bagasse, the bagasse production supplying
the Sugar Refinery of Bois-Rouge was totally spoiled. At this time,
Distillerie de Savanna based
its manufacturing energy power only on bagasse which unique supplier
was the Sugar Refinery.
Because of its dependence to this unique energy power supply, the Distillerie
de Savanna had
to transfer its location so as to get supplied by a new energy power
source. Thus, Distillerie de Savanna
settled in the Sugar Refinery of Bois-Rouge realm in Saint-André town
where both the distillery and its workshop were transferred.
More than rationalizing the manufacturing of rum thanks to the synergy
created by the gathering of all the distillery workshops on a same field,
this location transfer had bought closer the distillery and its raw material
productions. This new connection enables the distillery to get powered
all year long, to realize huge economies of scale but also to get the
opportunity to modernize its equipment and facilities and to better manage
its waste.
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