Bells Extra Special - 1980s

Arthur Bell began working at Thomas Sandeman’s wine & spirit merchant’s shop in Perth in the 1840s, becoming a partner shortly afterwards and soon moving into whisky blending. The business flourished despite the modest Bell’s aversion to advertising, and it was only in the late 1890s that the company’s first brands were registered at the behest of his sons Arthur K. and Robin Bell, who took over the business after their father’s death in 1900.

After acquiring Dufftown, Blair Athol and Inchgower distilleries in the 1930s, Bell’s went public in 1949 and stayed independent for decades, building Pittyvaich distillery in 1974 and growing Bell’s into the UK’s biggest whisky brand by the turn of the 1980s. Bell’s bought Bladnoch in 1983, shortly before being acquired themselves by Guinness in 1985. The Bell’s brand and distilleries were subsequently absorbed into United Distillers and today remain part of Diageo.