Page 7 - Drambuie case study
P. 7
The MacKinnons
In 1900, Malcolm MacKinnon arrived in Edinburgh from
Skye, where he went to work for a drinks company named
W. Macbeth and Sons. However, a chance encounter with
Eleanor Ross the widow of the landlord of the Broadford Inn
on Skye, who produced a version of the MacKinnon punch
commercially, and had patented it as Drambuie in 1893
found him buying the recipe. He then convinced the
Macbeths to produce the beverage. In 1914 he established
the Drambuie Company as a separate enterprise.
The First World War proved a springboard for Drambuie as
it distributed its drink to the officers’ messes of the Highland
regiments. Its popularity grew and by the time prohibition
was repealed in America, in 1933, Drambuie was ready and
able to take on and develop what would become its primary
market, the USA.
When Malcolm MacKinnon died in 1945 his widow, Gina,
took on the mantle of Chairman and ambassador for
Drambuie, traveling the world over the next twenty years
promoting the brand to a global market.
