William Grant & Sons - History

History

William Grant was born in Dufftown in 1839. The young Grant worked at Mortlach Distillery and dreamed of one day running his own distillery. He worked hard and saved and in 1886 Grant and his 9 children laid the first stone of the Glenfiddich Distillery. It was Christmas Day 1887 when the first spirit ran from the stills.

In 1892, William Grant & Sons bought a second neighbouring Distillery called Balvenie. In 1898, the two distilleries started blending their whiskies and Grant's Whisky was 'born'.

William Grant & Sons pioneered single malt Scotch whisky as, until Glenfiddich, only blended brands were common.

While on the one side very traditional, the company has also been very innovative. The company:

• was allegedly the first to market Scotch whisky abroad (this claim is very contentious - there are several, particularly Glen Grant and Glenmorangie, which would dispute it)
• revolutionized bottle design in the 1950s, creating a triangular bottle
• was the first to open up its distillery to visitors
• introduced the solera concept to Glenfiddich to create Glenfiddich Solera Reserve

In 1997, the Grant entered into a joint venture with the Robertson family (see The Edrington Group) creating a new company, Highland Distillers.

In May 2010 the group bought 4 brands from C&C Group, including Tullamore Dew, for 300m euro. In September 2010 they sold the 3 minor brands (Irish Mist, Carolans, Frangelico) to Gruppo Campari for 129m euro, so in effect Grants paid 171m euro for the Tullamore Dew brand and its production facilities. The current chairman of William Grant & Sons is Peter Gordon who has been since 2009.