Chivas Brothers

History

Chivas Regal was the creation of the two Chivas Brothers namely James and John who by all accounts started producing blends around the early 1800’s. The brothers believed from the start that a high standard of whisky producing was a key strategy for success within the whisky business. In their time the problem with whisky was it was very harsh and poorly matured so they set their sights on very high standards of whisky production and one that they would be delighted to share around with their family and friends with the knowledge that it was the best whisky they could produce, so when they started creating whisky, they made sure the whisky was consistently smooth, and a very high-quality blended whisky.

The two brothers were really the first to master the art of blending and over the years they passed on their blending skills to others, the creation of Chivas Regal in 1909 rewrote the whisky history books when the creation of the first 25-Year-Old blend was blessed to the whisky industry.

In 1949 Chivas Brothers was purchased by Seagram Ltd and some years later, in 1957, work began on the 14-acre Renfrew Road bottling site. The £1.5million site was officially opened by Samuel Bronfman, President of Seagram Ltd on 30 June 1964. The closure of the site was confirmed in 2017 and transfer of activities was underway by 2018.

Archive photograph of the whole site.

Sadly, demolition was approved back in April 2021 and the entire bottling plant behind the admin blocks had already been flattened.

The Headquarters of Chivas Brothers housed many administrative functions such as Human Resources, Finance, Customer Service, Freight & Logistics, IT and Legal Departments, and altogether is probably one of paisleys largest employers with some 450 employees. Throughout the UK Chivas Brothers has more than 30 sites and employs 1600 people and is part of the Pernod Ricard Group.

Externals of the main admin building.

Next door to the lobby were two decorated board rooms with lovely wood panelling and in one case, two small chandeliers still in place.

The only other point of interest on this side of the building was the canteen, which was modern, yet spacious and had a set of three arched windows that were replicated on the other side of the block.

The kitchen was mainly stripped.

Journeying back over to the opposite side led you down a long corridor. Leading off the corridor was a series of locker rooms and toilets.

Further through the site were office sections and display areas for the products bottled here.

The repeating set of windows that were separated unlike the canteen.

At first it wasn’t exactly clear that the building was apart of the Chivas site due to the front of it seeming more like a house. It was then apparent that the boarded structure was directly linked and fenced off from workers.

Some externals of the second building.

At face value, this section appeared to be less grand. The design was compact with a small wooden staircase and gorgeous stained-glass window overlooking the steps. It made sense for some architectural consideration to have gone into this building along with the main building.

The bay windowed front office and surrounding rooms concluded this area.