Potable Interests

Outside of Edinburgh, where it has its headquarters, Distillers Co. Ltd. is hardly a household name. Yet on its own and through a large family of subsidiaries, the company produces more than half the Scotch sold round the world, and its bottles carry most familiar labels: among them Johnnie Walker, Haig, Dewar's, Vat 69, White Horse and Black & White. The company also dips in a big way into gins and vodkas --producing, among others, Gordon's and Booth's.

D.C.L.'s chairman, Sir Robert Gumming, 66, a fourth-generation distillery-man, last year was knighted "for services to export." Small wonder. Johnnie Walker, the world's top-selling Scotch, sends more than a million cases a year to the U.S. This month, making his annual report for the twelve-month period ending March 31, Sir Robert said that overall exports of Scotch rose by 9,120,000 million gal., or 16%, to a total of 65,440,000 gal. Distillers Co. Ltd. also made marked gains with its gins and vodkas, especially in the U.S., where it already operates a distillery and bottling plant in Linden, N.J., plans to open a new one next month in Plainfield, Ill.

Despite all the good news, Sir Robert was unhappy. The reason was simple: British booze taxes have held Distillers Co.'s overall profits to $86 million, representing less than the growth rate that Cumming would like to see. "On balance," sniffed Sir Robert, "our potable interests have produced little more than was earned in the previous year."

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