Grain > North British

The North British Distillery Company Ltd. was established in 1885 by a group of independent blenders who, in the face of varying prices and fluctuating quality elsewhere in the industry, decided to produce grain spirit for inclusion in their own brands of blended whisky. This first board of directors included, as its chairman, Andrew Usher whose firm had been instrumental in developing the revolutionary concept of blending. The distillery came on stream in September 1887. It cost £142 000 to build and was designed to produce 114 000 litres of spirit per week. Compare this with today's' capacities of up to 1.25 million litres every week!! North British remained an independent concern until 1993 when Lothian Distillers was formed as a 50:50 joint venture between The Edrington Group and International Distillers & Vintners (I.D.V.) to buy out remaining shareholders. I.D.V. is now part of the massive, worldwide food and drinks concern Diageo.

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