Campbell Distillers

The origins of Campbell Distillers dates back to 1933, however the company of that name was established in 1988 when its parent company, Pernod Ricard merged Campbell & Son with the wine shipping firm, J.R. Parkington. Pernod Ricard had acquired the former in 1974 as one of its first orders of business after its own creation, a merger of the two famous French pastis liqueur producers of either name.

The company’s prize asset was the Aberlour distillery in Speyside, which Pernod Ricard had successfully developed a strong following for in the French market. Its best-seller however was the Clan Campbell blend of which Aberlour malt was the heart. The brand had also been introduced to France early on before rolling it out into the domestic and other European markets, and by 1996 Campbell Distillers had sold over 1m cases of it.

The popularity of Clan Campbell necessitated an expansion of their malt distillery portfolio, and Glenallachie was promtly acquired from Invergordon Distillers in 1989. The latter had bottled it as a single malt in the early part of the decade, but its role at Campbell Distillers was primarily provision of its blends. The company did however market two single malt brands, one for Aberlour and another for Edradour, launched by House of Campbell in 1986.

The company remained the Scotch whisky division of Pernod Ricard for the remainder of the century, however the demise of Seagram rang wholescale changes at the turn of the 21st. After its dissolution in 2000, the beverage assets of the former Canadian giant were shared between Diageo and Pernod Ricard in 2001, with the latter taking on its Scotch whisky interests. Pernod Ricard then merged Campbell Distillers and the Scottish-based Seagram Distillers, renaming the new entity Chivas Brothers after the historic Seagram property.