Hiram Walker & Sons

Hiram Walker & Sons History

Hiram Walker & Sons (Scotland) Ltd. was a holding company controlling the Scotch whisky operations of Canadian distiller Hiram Walker-Gooderham & Worts Ltd.

By the time it was founded in 1937, as part of a reorganisation of the Canadian company, Hiram Walker’s Scotch whisky interests already included George Ballantine & Son, whisky blender J&G Stodart, Stirling Bonded Company, Glenburgie and Miltonduff distilleries, all of which were acquired during the early 1930s.

In the same busy year Hiram Walker & Sons (Scotland) was founded, the group sold the Ballantine’s licenced grocer shops in Glasgow and Edinburgh, and commissioned a grain distillery in Dumbarton, near Glasgow – the largest of its time. The same site also housed the Inverleven malt distillery.

In 1954 Hiram Walker purchased Glencadam distillery and Bloch Brothers (Distillers) Ltd. which, through subsidiary company Taylor & Ferguson Ltd., owned Scapa distillery in Orkney.

In the years that followed, Hiram Walker purchased blender Gavin Distillers Ltd., Coulmore Distillery Co., Pulteney distillery at Wick, whisky broker Lundie Brothers (Whisky Brokers) Ltd., and, in 1969, Balblair distillery in Tain.

The acquisitions didn’t stop there. Ardbeg joined the fold in 1976 and a year later the company opened a state-of-the-art blending facility at Kilmaid near Dumbarton. Just one of the blending vats required 850 casks of whisky to fill it. By 1983 the complex included a bottling plant that could process four million cases of whisky a year.

The Scotch whisky industry began a period of rapid consolidation in the late 1980s which saw, after its purchase by Allied Lyons, Hiram Walker & Sons (Scotland) Ltd. become part of Allied Distillers before eventually joining French drinks group Pernod Ricard.