It was another American, Burton Gintell, that took the helm in 1978. In addition to the core brands of King’s Ransom and House of Lords, the business now had a single malt whisky called Glenforres Glenlivet, the name that Whiteley had bestowed on the distillery when he took over.
Gintell was not just a businessman he had a solid track record in the drinks industry having held senior marketing and finance positions at Seagram and American Distillers. What he found at Edradour was a company in disarray, without a plan but with three great brands. Gintell said he ‘found a non-managed rather than a mismanaged company’.
Gintell and his colleagues set about rebuilding the brands and growing market share, particularly in Europe and the US. He set up blind tasting events with consumers and trade representatives and ‘we found that after a tasting had received favourable press, there would be a run on our products in the local stores’.
By 1980 the new management team had turned the business around, grown the international market and Gintell received the Queen’s Award for Export Achievement.
The success and breadth of international sales brought this small company to the attention of the bigger players in the market and in 1982 House of Campbell, owned by Pernod Ricard decided to add Edradour and the Whiteley brands to their own vast empire.
Although Edradour had been bottled as a Single Malt for a number of years it was only when Pernod Ricard took over that it was bottled under the name of The Edradour.
