Distillers Company Ltd (DCL) was conceived in 1877 as a primarily defensive alliance of six of the largest Scottish grain whisky distillers. It grew to become the largest whisky company in the world by the 1930s, with a stable of world-leading blended scotches, and gins such as Gordon’s, Booth’s, and Tanqueray, in addition to specialties such as Pimm’s Cup. See Booth’s; Gordon’s; Pimm’s Cup; and Tanqueray Gordon & Co. This was a reluctant transformation for a business that had avoided participation in the branded spirits market, seeing itself as a stabilizing force in the production of both blended scotch and gin through its controlling influence in the grain whisky and neutral spirit market. That role was imperiled by the 1898 “Pattison Crash,” however, in which the failure of the highly leveraged independent whisky bottler Pattison, Elder & Co. brought down a number of distilling companies. Though DCL was fully aware of Pattison’s circumstances several years before its final failure, the company was still involved with Pattison and suffered from its collapse. Between that, the hostile post–World War I fiscal environment and the increasing cost of advertising by the main competing blending houses, DCL found that its path to survival led through branded spirits. This led to the acquisition of Scottish Malt Distillers, the Distillers Finance Corporation (with extensive Irish whisky interests), Tanqueray Gordon & Co, and eventually the “Great Amalgamation” of 1925. This saw John Dewar & Sons, James Buchanan & Co., and John Walker & Sons merge with the DCL, which had already acquired the Haig blending business; White Horse Distillers and MacDonald Greenlees were soon to follow, as were Booth’s Distilleries (including William Sanderson) in 1937. See Dewar’s and Johnnie Walker.
Overseen by William H. Ross (1862–1944), in effect the architect of today’s scotch whisky industry, the “Great Amalgamation” was in part a visionary piece of business rationalization in the face of increasingly hostile trading conditions. However, the management structure that was put in place (“The respective companies will continue to conduct their business on the same individual lines as formerly”), with a top-heavy DCL main board representing all the once-competing interests, left much to be desired, and eventually became a recipe for ossification.
The 1920s and 1930s saw the company consolidate its leadership position in scotch in the domestic and key export markets, notably the United States, where the importance of Prohibition to its long-term success, euphemistically referred to as “the Special Trade,” cannot be understated. At the same time Ross welcomed the advent of “the alcohol age” over the “whisky age” as the company began a widespread program of diversifications into motor fuels, pharmaceuticals, and a range of chemical products, much through the acquisition or licensing of German patents, championed and masterminded by Sir Alexander Walker (1869–1950). As such, the company became increasingly focused on the Anglo Persian Oil Company, ICI, and IG Farben as its competitive set. The sometimes mixed success of these ventures also set the precedent that led to the company signing a deal in 1957 with the German company Chemie Grünenthal to distribute the drug thalidomide in the United Kingdom. Prescribed by GPs for morning sickness, the drug had a devastating impact on fetal development, and the subsequent mishandling of the affair by the DCL in the face of a concerted campaign by the Sunday Times would cast a long and damaging shadow over the business.
By this time the DCL had become a bastion of the British business establishment, ensconced in St James Square (the birthplace of the Queen Mother, where she was royally entertained to lunch by the DCL main board each year on her birthday) with the offices of its constituent blending house (by now mostly bereft of any family connections) dotted around it in the streets of London’s club land. But its reputation was mortally wounded by thalidomide, and the staunchly conservative approach to the scotch business saw its share of the UK market fall from 54 percent to 15 percent in the ten years leading to 1984, as brands like Bells and Famous Grouse stole share, and the first million case selling brand in the United Kingdom, Haig Gold Label, almost disappeared from shelves. They refused to take the rise of single malts seriously and until the mid-1980s staunchly held out against encouraging public visitors at distilleries (one long-serving manager commented that the only sign at his office door said “Fuck off”). Similarly, its position in the United States was under threat from “upstart” lighter Prohibition-era blends such as J&B, Cutty Sark, and Chivas Regal. With an elderly board of questionable talent or energy—largely domiciled among the manicured golf courses of the Home Counties—who rarely, if ever, visited Scotland (or for that matter markets, apart from the occasional mid-winter “fact finding missions” to the Cape), the DCL was completely out of touch, and more often than not out for lunch.
Today, of the original six distilleries that formed DCL (Cambus, Cameronbridge, Carsebridge, Glenochil, Kirkliston, and Port Dundas), only Cameronbridge is still in operation.
Craig, H. Charles. The Scotch Whisky Industry Record. Dumbarton, UK: Index, 1994.
Pugh, Peter. Is Guinness Good for You? London: Financial Training, 1987.
Weir, R. B. The History of the Distillers Company, 1877–1939. Oxford: Clarendon, 1995.
By: Nicholas Morgan