The House of Dewar

In 1846, when England was in the midst of the Corn Laws controversy, Ireland in the throes of the Potato Famine and Scotland in grim ecclesiastical conflict over the Disruption of the Church, a middle-aged Scot opened a small wine and spirit shop in the High Street of Perth.
No doubt the baillies and burgesses of the City cannily discussed the prospects of John Dewar’s new venture. Doubtless there were shakings of heads and prophecies of calamity. Little did the doubters think that this little shop would make the name of Perth world famous and the “White Label” of Dewar would become as well known
as the Fair Maid of Perth. There must have been
something peculiarly progressive in Perth in the latter half of the nineteenth century, for it was there that the greatest dyeing and cleaning business and the largest accident insurance company in Britain originated about this date.

John Dewar began his business in true Scottish manner, very carefully and cautiously. For the first dozen years it was a mere local business confined to the City of Perth and its immediate neighbourhood. It was not till 1860 that John Dewar ventured to engage his first traveller. Then bit by bit the business gradually extended. Ten
years later orders were regularly received from a wide area in Scotland, ranging from Dornoch in the North to Glasgow and Edinburgh in the South. Though the business was not large it was very firmly based. Even the great failure of the City of Glasgow Bank in the seventies, which spread devastation through Scottish industry, left
the firm of Dewar unscathed.

Before he died in 1880 John Dewar had admitted his son John Alexander Dewar into partnership and the firm’s name was changed to John Dewar and Son. A few years later J. A. Dewar’s younger brother, Thomas Robert Dewar, was admitted into partnership and the style of the firm was again changed to John Dewar and Sons.

The House of Dewar was then in the hands of young men of vision and imagination. They had behind them the comparatively small but sound business which their cautious father had built up. They resolved to capture the English market and in ten years’ time had succeeded. When the English trade was firmly established, they decided to seek the great world markets and the basis of a huge export trade was created. It was about this time that the House of Dewar obtained the first official recognition of the supreme value of its products. At the Edinburgh Exhibition of 1885 it gained the gold medal award for whisky and this was followed by similar awards at all the great international exhibitions for the next half century. So in twenty-five years the House of Dewar expanded from being a small but reputable business into a huge house of world-wide repute and universal connections.

In the generation following, though handicapped by two world wars, American prohibition, crushing taxation and restriction of production, the House of Dewar has still progressed steadily, though not of course at the sensational rate of those easy, prosperous and comfortable Victorian and Edwardian times when whisky was only 3s. 6d. a bottle.

However, the sales side of a business, though very important, is less vital than the production side. Without a fine product the most energetic sales staff is wasted. In 1896 the directors decided that the distillery they had rented at Tullymet was unsuitable and built their own distillery at Aberfeldy. Gradually the Company’s distillery interests expanded till at last it owned seven distilleries,
together with blending and bottling warehouses.
The original London Office was at Warwick Street, then it was moved to 48, Lime Street, and later to Dewar’s Wharf at Waterloo Bridge, where it stayed till the completion of Dewar House in the Haymarket.

At first part of the London bottling was done by John Roebuck & Co. Ultimately this firm was taken over and a bottling plant was set up at Dewar’s Wharf. The first decade of this century saw the creation of huge blending vats, bonded warehouses, bottling stores and casemakers’ shops at Perth. Afterwards, in 1908, came the erection and opening of the stately Dewar House in the Haymarket, which houses the firm’s London
Offices.

This is a brief outline, a mere skeleton history of the House of Dewar. The secret of its success was due, not merely to a fine product, but to remarkable personalities. It was built by the untiring efforts of certain outstanding men. As we have pointed out, till 1880 it was a compara-
tively small but relatively prosperous business. Then it came under the control of two remarkable brothers, who, though entirely different in personality, and perhaps because of that, made a wonderful working partnership. At an age when most men are content to fill, and indeed are only fit to fill, subordinate positions, these youngsters
challenged the business world. Their business was soon great, but their resources were comparatively small. They ran enormous risks. All this huge expansion, especially in foreign markets, required long credits. At one period their bank overdraft amounted to 300,000 pounds, but those were the days when bankers had faith in character and
enterprise.

The young men kept their heads when the English business became a success. They were not content with the substantial victory of entering the London and English markets. Directly those markets were on a firm basis they looked round for more worlds to conquer and T. R. Dewar set forth on his famous world journey, which made the House of Dewar known throughout two hemispheres. Not even then were they content. Success had to be followed up, and from that day it was a rare moment when some director of the House of Dewar was not overseas. What were the brothers like who made this
great business, both superb business men, both eminent in public life and yet strongly contrasting?

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