Habitation Saint-Étienne was founded at the beginning of the 19th century on the foundations of the La Maugée sugar factory, whose land extended over more than 400 hectares between Gros-Morne and Saint-Joseph.
In 1882, Amédée Aubéry purchased the Habitation Saint-Étienne. As a young captain of industry, he would become one of the great figures in the economy of Martinique. He transformed the sugar factory into a distillery and undertook the modernization of the infrastructure.
From 1909 and until its closure at the end of the 1980s, it was the Simonnet family who guaranteed the production and know-how of Habitation Saint-Étienne.
Finally, in 1994, the estate passed into the hands of its current owners: Yves and José Hayot. They are relaunching the HSE brand to produce Rhum Agricole AOC Martinique. They are also committed to restoring, preserving and promoting the architectural heritage of the Housing. Today a listed Historic Monument, it is a superb example of Martinique industrial architecture typical of the end of the 19th century.