North+British+Distillery+Company

=North British Distillery Company Limited=

Company Number: SC001491 Date of Incorporation: 24 October 1885 Contact Details: Wheatfield Road, Edinburgh, EH11 2PX Operating Details: Active (Private Limited Company) Other names (if known): Function of Company*: Manufacture distilled potable alcoholic drinks (1591) Headquarters/Base of Operations Location: Edinburgh Area of Operation: Edinburgh manufacturer, sells whisky across the UK


 * Taken from Standard Industrial Classification 2003, as used by Companies House in 2010

Records
Held By: North British Distillery Company onsite

Scope/type: unknown

Conditions governing access/use: The Company is currently unable to accommodate access

Related records: Large number of records in the National Archives of Scotland, many relating to plans of equipment used by the company at Gorgie. There are also several court records of legal action involving the company.

The North British Distillery Company was founded in 1885, and built the North British Distillery at Gorgie Edinburgh one year later. The founders were Andrew usher, William Sanderson and John M. Crabbie, a group of blenders and spirit dealers. Initially the site consisted of one coffey still. The distillery produces grain whisky, and has always used a proportion of green malt in its blends, which eliminates the need for some drying of malt. The site, selected for its nearness to the Union canal in an Edinburgh suburb, went on steam in September 1887.

In its first full year the distillery produced 3.6 million litres, and fillings demand increased year on year. By 1914 the site produced 9 million litres annually. During the First World War distillation was suspended and the distillery was converted to the production of acetate from maize. However it did not reach production before the United States entered the war and became Britain’s principal supplier. Operations resumed in the 1920s, although by 1932 the production had fallen to 1.2 million litres following the Great Crash and Prohibition in the United States.

By 1933 production began to grow again, although production ceased on the outbreak of the Second World War. However once distillation began again, it took until 1955 for production levels to return to the 1914 high-watermark. In 1948 the first Saladin Maltings in Scotland were put into use on the site- this measure (previously used in France) reduced floor space and labour by employing forced ventilation and mechanical turning.

By the 1960s however the company had acquired two warehouses in Westfield to store maltings, and by the end of the decade had added a new top-florr for extra office accomodation. In the 1960s and 1970s the distillery successfully revived ‘drum’ technology to keep the temperature of germinating malt at a constant. Despite a difficult period in the1980s, the company began the 1990s as the only grain whisky producer in Edinburgh and with a record production of 41.7million litres. Currently the company operates from two sites at Wheatfield Road (warehousing) and the distilling site at Muirhall. Current demand for whisky is strong, and the company foresees a rosy future.

Information taken from []