Ian Macleod Distillers

Independent, family-owned distiller, blender and bottler.

Peter Russell’s father Leonard started out in business as a whisky broker in 1936, expanding into blending and exporting. Peter joined the firm in 1956, and the name Ian Macleod & Co and its Isle of Skye blended Scotch whisky brand was acquired by what had become Peter J Russell & Co in 1963. Ian Macleod & Co had been incorporated in 1933. The unspecified Islay single malt Smokehead, with a singularly contemporary image, was introduced in 2006.

The company achieved a long-held ambition of becoming a distiller when it purchased Glengoyne from The Edrington Group for £7.2 million in 2003. A second distillery, Tamdhu, was acquired from Edrington eight years later, and reopened in 2012 having been mothballed since 2009.

In September 2016 the company bought whisky blender and gin distiller Spencerfield Spirit Company for an undisclosed sum, adding the Pig's Nose, Feathery and Sheep Dip blended Scotch whiskies, and Edinburgh Gin brand to its portfolio.