The North Brittish

Welcome to

The North British
Distillery Company

OUR STORY

185 years

The North British Distillery is one of Scotland’s oldest and largest Scotch grain whisky producers. Combining timeless tradition with investment in innovation, we distil and mature premium grain spirit which is used as the base for some of the worlds best-loved blended whiskies.

OUR OFFERING

Consistency & capacity

Trusted by leading brand owners and blenders, we offer flexible and reliable supply of quality new-make grain spirit and matured grain whisky. Our services include cask filling, contract storage under bond, disgorging and integrated logistics all underpinned by 185 years of experience and expertise.

Capacity to produce over 60 million litres of alcohol annually

Storage for 900k casks in our maturation warehouses

10% of blended Scotch whiskies include our grain spirit

Timeline

Our History

1885

The North British Distillery Company was established by Andrew Usher, William Sanderson and John Crabbie. Each owned their own whisky brands and joined forces to create a distillery that supply grain spirit

1887

The distillery became operational in September 1887, producing 3.6m litres of alcohol in its first full year. Shareholders received a total of 440% on their investments in the first 20 years – a very respectable return.

1905

A legal challenge was raised against grain whisky, stating that to be called whisky, it must be made from malted barley and processed through a pot still. In 1908 it finally won the right to be called whisky

1914

During WWI, the distillery was used for munitions purposes with the intention of manufacturing acetone. Production never began as the war ended, but it was 1920 before grain spirit production started again

1935

With the introduction of electricity to the distillery still a year away, mashing and distilling could not be done concurrently. Instead, mashing was undertaken from Wednesday noon to Saturday, with the stills working Monday to Wednesday morning

1939

Following the start of WWII, the distillery was again closed down in 1939 due to lack of raw materials

1949

After WWII, production finally restarted at the distillery. The North British Lunch was established to mark the end of the war relief effort and continues to this day, bringing together peers from across the industry

1993

Retaining the North British trading name, Robertson & Baxter and International Distillers & Vintners formed a joint venture called Lothian Distillers, buying out all other shareholders, the first significant change to our ownership structure

2008

While it took 100 years to produce 1.5bn litres of alcohol, investment in modernisation enabled us to reach 2bn litres just ten years later in 2008, hitting our next milestone of 2.5bn litres in 2015

2026

North British continues to transform, placing environmental sustainability, operational efficiency, and long term resilience at the centre of its strategy.