Overview

The Distillers Company (DCL) existed from 1877 until 1986 when it was acquired by Guinness. This book covers DCL's history from its founding as the merger of six firms to its position as one of Britain's largest manufacturing companies with diversified interests around the world. It is an extraordinary story of growth, acquisition, and diversification. By the 1920s DCL dominated the whisky industry in Scotland eventually acquiring the then big three blending firms - James Buchanan, John Dewar, and John Walker. With unfettered access to company records Dr Weir has been able to piece together the story of the company that was once described as concealing its activities behind a `tartan curtain'. He traces the role of key individuals like William ross; its lobbying and campaigning activities against drink controls; its international marketing in North America, where its partners included Joseph Kennedy; and its later diversification into industrial alcohol, fuel alcohol, and chemicals to meet the demands of the growing science-based industries. This book is the first full-length study of DCL based on the company's own archives and will appeal to a wide range of readers - those interested in the history of whisky and the Scottish distilleries; economic and business historians concerned with the growth of major corporations; and management analysts studying the processes of growth, diversification, entrepreneurship, and R&D that are the necessary ingredients of the sustained growth of successful companies.

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9780198288671

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Reviews

Weir's book makes a significant, and very readable, contribution to the history of the whiskey industry... --Business History Review<br> Weir's detailed and carefully written study will remain the standard history for many years. --American Historical Review<br>

This is a major, authoritative, account ... the book is based on extensive use of internal documentation ... Weir in effect provides us with a sound overall view of British spirits manufacturing and distribution ... It says much for the author's determination that he has been able to produce such a substantial work about an enterprise which has often been characterized as insular and secretive. Terry Gourvish, Economic History Review The comprehensive reconstruction of the development of the firm and the industry it came to dominate is based on extensive archival evidence and meticulous research, and it will quickly establish itself as a major source for all historians interested in the firm and the industries in which it operated ... Dr Weir has certainly succeeded in demonstrating the potential to be found in DCL's extensive archives, which will no doubt be drawn upon by others adopting a more thematic and analytical approach. Business History Quite clearly a business and industrial history of the foremost rank. And, like the finest malt whiskies, the product has improved in the time it has taken to mature. Economics History Review It will quickly establish itself as a major source for all historians interested in the firm and the industries in which it operated. Business History The long gestation of his new book shows both in exhaustive research ... and the clarity of analysis. Weir provides shape to a complicated and sometimes miscellaneous story that often embraces the whisky industry as a whole. ... It is an invaluable reference work History, Fall 1996

`This is a major, authoritative, account ... the book is based on extensive use of internal documentation ... Weir in effect provides us with a sound overall view of British spirits manufacturing and distribution ... It says much for the author's determination that he has been able to produce such a substantial work about an enterprise which has often been characterized as insular and secretive.' Terry Gourvish, Economic History Review `The comprehensive reconstruction of the development of the firm and the industry it came to dominate is based on extensive archival evidence and meticulous research, and it will quickly establish itself as a major source for all historians interested in the firm and the industries in which it operated ... Dr Weir has certainly succeeded in demonstrating the potential to be found in DCL's extensive archives, which will no doubt be drawn upon by others adopting a more thematic and analytical approach.' Business History `Quite clearly a business and industrial history of the foremost rank. And, like the finest malt whiskies, the product has improved in the time it has taken to mature.' Economics History Review `It will quickly establish itself as a major source for all historians interested in the firm and the industries in which it operated.' Business History `The long gestation of his new book shows both in exhaustive research ... and the clarity of analysis. Weir provides shape to a complicated and sometimes miscellaneous story that often embraces the whisky industry as a whole. ... It is an invaluable reference work' History, Fall 1996

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