John Dewar & Sons

The last of Scotland’s historic “big five” blenders still actively trading, John Dewar & Sons has a long history. The company was established in Perth in 1846 John Dewar and became a success in the whisky world under his two sons, Tommy and Alexander.

The 1890s were the true boom period for the company, and Tommy set up a sales network for its blends across 26 countries between 1892 and 1894. Two years later, they boosted production by building their first malt distillery in Aberfeldy, and 1899 they launched the iconic Dewar’s White Label blend. The turn of the century was less favourable however, and became a period of consolidation within the industry, particularly by the aggressive Distillery Company Limited, intent on rationalising the industry following the Pattison Crash of 1898.

As one of the “big five” blenders of the day, John Dewar & Sons had previously competed with DCL. The conglomerate’s irresistible expansion in the 1900s made this increasingly difficult however, and in 1915 John Dewar & Sons was forced to seek an alliance with James Buchanan & Company. They pair formed a holding company called Scotch Whisky Brands (later renamed Buchanan-Dewar), and embarked on the acquisition trail themselves, notably picking up Port Ellen, Benrinnes and Lochruan distilleries. Resistance proved futile however, and the company was folded into DCL alongside John Walker & Sons in 1925. White Horse Distillers, the last of the big five and whom in 1923 Buchanan-Dewar had themselves failed in a bid to acquire, followed in 1927.

Despite DCL’s desire for control, its management of subsidiaries once acquired was fairly loose, and they were largely free to pursue their own unique business interests. For Dewar’s this largely remained its acclaimed White Label blend, but it also experimented with single malt in the 1980s, marketing Glen Ord under the Glenordie brand name after being granted the license for the distillery by DCL.

The hands-off nature of DCL gradually became viewed as mismanagement however, and in 1984 its profits began to slide. It had spent the previous decade over-producing and had shut down several distilleries the year prior. The result was a takeover by Guinness, who merged it with Arthur Bell & Sons to create United Distillers. The new company had a far more direct approach, centralising the production and distribution of its considerable portfolio of brands, and gradually reducing the blending subsidiaries to non-trading entities.

In 1997, Guinness merged with Grand Metropolitan and created Diageo by amalgamating United Distillers with International Distillers & Vintners. Their combined assets however were a problem in several countries, particularly the US where an anti-trust ruling ordered them to divest a number of their brands. John Dewar & Sons was the most-high profile of these and was sold to Bacardi alongside Bombay gin in 1998 for $1.9bn, and the new owners immediately used it to replace their former Scotch whisky division William Lawson Distillers.

As a result, John Dewar & Sons portfolio included its own blends, the William Lawson blends and Macduff distillery, and the Aultmore, Aberfeldy, Craigellachie and Royal Brackla distilleries included in the deal with Diageo, for which they immediately launched new single malt brands. With the exception of Aberfeldy however, these were gradually discontinued in the 2000s and it was not until the debut of The Last Great Malts collection that they returned, all debuting new looks alongside the introduction of The Deveron from Macduff.