The Glenlivet & Glen Grant Distilleries

Faced with the challenge of trying to compete with the huge financial backing of rival distillers owned by the like of The Distillers Company Limited, Hiram Walker and William Grant & Sons, the owners of Glenlivet and Glen Grant distilleries resolved in 1952 to merge their businesses with the aim of collectively promoting their brands. The result was George & J. G. Smith merging with J&J Grant to form the Glen Grant & Glenlivet Distilleries.

The company was unusual for the time in that its key brands were single malts as opposed to blends. Both constituent companies in the merger had embraced the category very early and had established and recognised labels which had been licensed to a variety of bottlers over the years. The venture was an early success, particularly for Glen Grant which found itself to be hugely popular in Italy for the endeavours of their agent there, Armando Giovinetti. Such was the demand for their whisky that in 1965 they needed to reopen the mothballed Glen Grant 2, better known today as Caperdonich distillery.

By 1970 the company was ready to expand again, merging with Longmorn-Glenlivet and the blending company Hill, Thomson & Co. Initially the company operated under its existing name, however this was promptly simplified to The Glenlivet Distilleries in 1972. The new company then became a subsidiary of Seagram Distillers in 1977, which in turn was bought by Pernod Ricard in 2001. Today The Glenlivet Distillers remains a dormant subsidiary of its spirits division in Scotland, Chivas Brothers.