Ian Macleod Distillers began life as a whisky brokerage founded in 1933 by Leonard Russell senior. His family's firm bought the small business of Ian MacLeod & Co. in March 1963, and two months later bought the Isle of Skye blended Scotch whisky brand, which it still owns.
For decades the company worked mainly as an independent bottler and blender rather than a distiller in its own right. That changed in 2003 when it bought the Glengoyne distillery from the Edrington Group, followed by Tamdhu in 2011 and the Rosebank trademarks and site in 2017. The company remains independent and family-owned, run by descendants of the Russell family, and its portfolio now spans Glengoyne, Tamdhu, Rosebank and Smokehead single malts alongside blends such as Isle of Skye and King Robert II, plus Edinburgh Gin.