The story
The Distillers Company origins lie in a trade association known as the Scotch Distillers' Association formed by Menzies, Barnard & Craig, John Bald & Co., John Haig & Co., MacNab Bros, Robert Mowbray and Macfarlane & Co. in 1865.
It was incorporated in 1877 as The Distillers Company Ltd. (DCL) and in 1894 DCL was listed on the Edinburgh and Glasgow stock exchanges.
During the early part of the 1900s, DCL embarked in programme of distillery acquisitions at low prices in the wake of the Pattisons crash of 1898.
In 1914 DCL claimed to be the largest whisky distiller in the world.
In 1919 DCL purchased the totality of John Haig & Co. and in 1925 combined it with John Walker & Son and Buchanan-Dewar on a share exchange basis.
In 1929 DCL took over White Horse Distillers Ltd.
During the 1930s, one product introduced by DCL was an alcohol addition to petrol, called Discol. This was a way to benefit from any excess alcohol production as the market and demand varied. The resultant fuel was cooler-burning and had a higher octane-rating than fuel without the additive.
in 1985 James Gulliver's Argyll Foods group, which operated the Glen Scotia distillery, launched a hostile bid for DCL. The offer was rejected and The Distillers Company was finally acquired by Guinness in 1986. The transaction was shadowed by controversy because it involved fraudulent activity, becoming known as the Guinness share-trading fraud.
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DCL was renamed to United Distillers in 1987. In 1998 United Distillers was merged with International Distillers & Vintners to create United Distillers & Vintners (UDV), forming the spirits division of Diageo plc. The company still exists today as Diageo Scotland Ltd.
From Wikipedia’s article on The Distillers Company, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3