Habitation Saint-Etienne

The Habitation Saint-Étienne dates back to the early 19th century, but its focus on rum production dates to 1882 when it was purchased by Amédée Aubéry who had identified rum as an opportunity to make money from the oversupply of sugarcane at the time. The Aubérys sold up to the Simonnet family in 1909, who retained the distillery until its eventual decline, closing in 1988 after struggling to financially recover from the effects of two hurricanes at the beginning of the decade.

Although bought by Yves Hayot's COMEX group in 1994 (later absorbed by HOLMEX), the company opted not to resume distilling there and instead turned it into an ageing facility for rum produced at its Simon distillery. These were first marketed using the HSE brand name in 2005.