William Grant and Sons

William Grant and Sons

William Grant and Sons

 

William Grant & Sons

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William Grant & Sons Ltd. is an independent, family-owned Scottish

company which distills Scotch whisky and other selected categories of

spirits. It was established in 1887[1] by William Grant, and is now run

by the descendants of the founder. It is the largest of the handful of

Scotch whisky distillers remaining in family ownership. "William Grant

& Sons" is often abbreviated to "W. Grant & Sons" or just "Grant's",

after their leading blended whisky of the same name.

 

The company is the 3rd largest producer of Scotch whisky (10.4%

market share) after Diageo (34.4%), and Pernod Ricard. The

company's central headquarters are in Strathclyde Business Park,

North Lanarkshire. Sales and marketing headquarters are in

Richmond, London. The company is a member of the Scotch Whisky

Association.

The master blender of Grant's is Brian Kinsman, who recently

succeeded David Stewart who had been in his post for 47 years, the

longest serving master blender with one distiller in the industry.

 

 

Awards

In 1974, William Grant & Sons won the Queen's Award to Industry for

Outstanding Export Achievement, the first Scotch whisky company to

receive this award.

 

In 1999, William Grant & Sons received the drinks industry's top

accolade, 'Distiller of the Year' from the International Wine & Spirit

Competition. In 2000, the company received the 'Distiller of the Year'

accolade for an unprecedented second year in a row. In 2001, the

company received the International Spirits Challenge 'Distiller of the

Year' accolade. In 2003, Glenfiddich 40 Year Old was acclaimed 'Best

of the Best' by industry bible Whisky magazine after 75 experts in

three different continents declared it to be the world's finest single

malt. In 2004, William Grant & Sons won a record number of medals

and seals of approval at the International Spirits Challenge, one of

the world's leading spirit competitions. The company won 3 gold

medals, 9 silver, 10 bronze and 7 seals of approval - a total of 29.

The independent panel awarded the gold medals for The Balvenie

Vintage Cask 1972, The Balvenie 30 Year Old and Grant's Rare Old

18 Year Old.

 

Distilleries

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.

Brands

The company's leading single malt Scotch brand is Glenfiddich, the

best-selling brand in the worldwide single malt Scotch market

(700,000 cases/year and 17.37% market share). This is more than

the sales of the next two single malts combined. Their leading

blended Scotch brand is Grant's, the 4th best-selling brand in the

worldwide blended Scotch market and the Scotch market as a whole (4

million cases/year). Grant's is also the 4th best-selling brand in the

domestic United Kingdom Scotch market (420,000 cases/year and

14.6% market share).

Core brands

Support Brands

Rare whiskies

William Grant & Sons produces a number of rare whiskies, most of

which are described in the articles on Glenfiddich, Grant's and

Balvenie. However, their rare whiskies also include:

Other rare whiskies have been bottled as private vintages for

Concorde, Queen Mary 2 and the Royal Danish Wedding.

Highland Distillers brands

William Grant & Sons and the Edrington Group took Highland Distillers

private in 2000.

Other brands

References

  1. Official William Grant website

External links

Independent sites

Brand websites

Media coverage

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Grant_%26_Sons" Categories:

 Companies of Scotland | Beverage companies of the United Kingdom |  Family businesses |

 North Lanarkshire |  Companies established in 1886 | British brands