John Haig & Co

Part of a great distilling dynasty, John Haig's ancestors had connections in whisky dating back to the 17th century when Robert Haig is recorded as having been summoned to face his church elders and defend himself against the accusation that he had been witnessed distilling on the sabbath. John Haig’s uncles had all been distillery owners before him, and his aunt had been married to John Jameson, founder of the eponymous distillery in Dublin. John Haig & Company was then established in 1824 with the building of Cameronbridge distillery.

The company was a very early advocate for the column still, which was invented by John’s cousin Robert Stein, and they installed their patent still at Cameronbridge in 1829. Not one to let family loyalty stand in the way of business, Haig was also quick to invest in the more advanced Coffey still design later produced by Irish engineer, Aeneas Coffey. By the time Alfred Barnard visited the distillery in the 1880s, it boasted two of each type and John Haig & Co become fully fledged distillers of single grain whisky.

The company made similar investments in the Seggie distillery, however this operation was less of a success and hindsight suggests that they overinvested in it, building a much larger facility than the market required. It closed in 1852 and again in 1860, and such setbacks were likely a contributing factor in John Haig & Co’s desire to establish the Distillers Company Limited, a coalition with five other Lowland grain distillers that aimed to protect profits by allocating production and fixing prices. DCL was finally established in 1877, and although Cameronbridge became part of it, the blending operation of John Haig & Company opted to remain independent, moving its operation from the distillery to Markinch.

DCL was quick to expand upon its intended remit however, and its aggressive acquisition policy into the 20th century saw it begin to acquire numerous rival blenders as well as a portfolio of malt distilleries. It soon came to dominate the market and in 1919, John Haig & Co was the first of the “big five” blenders to reluctantly accept a merger with it. It was followed by John Walker & Sons and Buchanan-Dewar in 1925 and White Horse Distillers in 1927.

Despite its desire for control, DCL had a contrasting operational approach that allowed these companies the freedom to pursue their individual business interests. To support their blended Scotch brands, it granted them licenses for the malt distilleries it owned, to which John Haig received Glenkinchie, Mannochmore and Glenlossie, among others. Interestingly and unlike the others, it never sought to experiment with single malt brands for any of them, preferring to focus on its flagships blends, Gold Label and Dimple (known as Pinch in the US). Both were a huge success and by 1939 Haig blends were the best-selling in the UK, with Gold Label breaking the million-case mark in 1971. That decade brought declining fortunes for the blended Scotch market though, which put DCL in financial strife by the 1980s when it transpired it had hugely overprovisioned in the previous years.

The result was DCL being bought by Guinness and merged with Arthur Bell & Sons to create United Distillers in 1987. The new company’s remit was to centralise control of its brands, including those of the blending subsidiaries. This happened quickly for John Haig & Co, which was declared non-trading in 1991. Today its Gold Label and Dimple brands are still marketed by Diageo, however they are mostly limited to export markets.