JOHN DEWAR AND SONS LIMITED
JOHN DEWAR AND SONS LIMITED is a private company limited by shares registered in England and Wales under company number 00613551. Companies House records the company as Active, with a registered office at 12 Francis Street, London SW1P 1QN, accounts last made up to 31 March 2025. Its registered activities are SIC 11010 (distilling, rectifying and blending of spirits) and SIC 46342 (wholesale of wine, beer, spirits and other alcoholic beverages).
The registration is younger than the Dewar’s name, and the two should not be conflated. Company 00613551 was incorporated on 24 October 1958 under the Companies Act 1948 as CLAN MUNRO WHISKY LIMITED; it became WILLIAM LAWSON DISTILLERS LIMITED by certificate issued on 29 September 1972, and JOHN DEWAR AND SONS LIMITED by a further certificate issued on 16 July 1998. A separate Scottish registration, SC015075, carried the name JOHN DEWAR & SONS. LIMITED from 5 May 1928 until that same date, 16 July 1998, when it took the name WILLIAM LAWSON DISTILLERS LIMITED; it was dissolved on 22 September 2020. Companies House’s own “previous company names” table for 00613551 lists a single former name and dates it from incorporation, which the company’s filed 1972 certificate contradicts.
The strategic report filed for the year ended 31 March 2025 gives the principal activities of JOHN DEWAR AND SONS LIMITED as the distillation, warehousing, blending, bottling and sale of Scotch whisky, gin and ready-to-serve cocktails. It states that the company produces Scotch whisky sold under the Dewar’s and William Lawson’s trademarks and gin under the Bombay Sapphire trademark, and that it operates five malt whisky distilleries in Scotland and one gin distillery in England, together with maturation, blending and bottling facilities in Scotland. The Scotch Whisky Association’s member directory lists Aberfeldy, Aultmore, Craigellachie, Macduff and Royal Brackla distilleries under John Dewar & Sons Ltd. Production is governed by The Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009 (SI 2009/2890), under which Scotch whisky must be distilled at a distillery in Scotland and matured only in Scotland, in oak casks of not more than 700 litres, for at least three years; the company held £653.9m of maturing spirit in inventory at 31 March 2025.
For the year ended 31 March 2025 the company’s own audited accounts report revenue of £227.1m (2024: £227.1m), operating profit of £39.7m, profit before taxation of £13.8m and profit for the year of £8.0m (2024: £14.1m), with £212.0m of revenue earned outside the United Kingdom and £15.1m within it. Average monthly headcount was 563. These are entity-level figures and not those of the wider group. No dividend was proposed for the year, and the shares are not admitted to trading on any exchange.
Sources
- Companies House — company overview, JOHN DEWAR AND SONS LIMITED (00613551); retrieved 29 September 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00613551
- Companies House — certificate of incorporation on change of name, CLAN MUNRO WHISKY LIMITED to WILLIAM LAWSON DISTILLERS LIMITED, issued 29 September 1972, and declaration of compliance on registration stamped 24 October 1958; retrieved 29 September 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00613551/filing-history/MTg0MTQ4MzI4YWRpcXprY3g/document
- Companies House — company overview, WILLIAM LAWSON DISTILLERS LIMITED (SC015075), formerly JOHN DEWAR & SONS. LIMITED, dissolved 22 September 2020; retrieved 29 September 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/SC015075
- Companies House — full accounts of JOHN DEWAR AND SONS LIMITED for the year ended 31 March 2025 (strategic report, directors’ report, income statement, notes 4, 8 and 14), filed 29 December 2025; retrieved 29 September 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00613551/filing-history/MzQ5NTY0OTY2N2FkaXF6a2N4/document
- Scotch Whisky Association — members directory, entry for John Dewar & Sons Ltd; retrieved 29 September 2026. https://www.scotch-whisky.org.uk/join-us/members-directory/
- The Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009 (SI 2009/2890), regulation 3, legislation.gov.uk; made 2009, retrieved 29 September 2026. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2009/2890/regulation/3/made
- Company fundamentals
- Corporate linkage & group structures
- Digitized company financials
- Firmographics — websites, social profiles, revenue and employee estimates
Shareholders
1
Shareholders of John Dewar and Sons Limited
One shareholder is disclosed. The Companies House register of persons with significant control records Bacardi U.K. Limited (England and Wales, company number 00366786, registered office 12 Francis Street, London SW1P 1QN) as the sole active PSC of John Dewar and Sons Limited, notified on 6 April 2016, under three limbs: ownership of shares of 75% or more, ownership of voting rights of 75% or more, and the right to appoint or remove a majority of the board. The UK register publishes banded control, not exact percentages, so the register itself does not assert 100%.
The exact figure comes from the filings. The company’s audited accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025 record at note 20 an issued capital of 3,716,582 ordinary shares of £1.00 each at both balance-sheet dates, and at note 25 a post-balance-sheet issue on 24 April 2025 of 2,500,000 further ordinary £1 shares at a subscription price of £100 per share (£2.5m to share capital, £247.5m to share premium), taking issued capital to 6,216,582 ordinary shares of £1.00. A statement of capital of GBP 6,216,582 following that allotment (form SH01) was filed on 30 April 2025. The £250m of proceeds was applied to repay loans from group undertakings.
The Zavia baseline record holds a single row — Bacardi U.K. Limited, 100%, 6,216,582 ordinary GBP 1.00 shares, verified 28 September 2026 — which reconciles exactly with that statement of capital. That is unusual for this dataset and is recorded here as accurate.
Ultimate beneficial ownership
No ultimate beneficial owner of John Dewar and Sons Limited is identified on any public UK record, and none can be calculated. The UK chain stops one level up: Bacardi U.K. Limited’s own PSC register carries an active statement, notified 2 May 2017, that the company knows or has reasonable cause to believe that there is no registrable person or registrable relevant legal entity in relation to it. Nothing above it is registrable at Companies House.
Beyond that point the position rests on the audited accounts of the two companies, both for the year ended 31 March 2025. Note 24 to John Dewar and Sons Limited’s accounts names Bacardi Limited, registered at 65 Pitts Bay Road, Pembroke HM 08, Bermuda, as the ultimate parent company and the largest group to consolidate its results, and Bacardi-Martini B.V. of Delftse Poort, Weena 505, 3013 AL Rotterdam, the Netherlands, as the smallest group to consolidate them. Note 17 to Bacardi U.K. Limited’s accounts states the same two entities, describing Bacardi Limited as the ultimate parent and controlling company and Bacardi-Martini B.V. as its immediate parent.
Bacardi Limited is privately held and Bermuda’s company register is not freely searchable — both roc.gov.bm endpoints were unreachable from this machine on 29 September 2026 — so the ownership of Bacardi Limited itself cannot be verified from public filings, and no natural person is identified as a beneficial owner of this company on any source consulted. Ownership reporting on this page therefore ends at Bacardi Limited, Bermuda, named as controlling company in filed UK accounts.
Data availability
Availability is partial. The United Kingdom publishes a complete PSC register and full statements of capital free of charge, so the immediate holder and the share count are firm; but the PSC regime reports control in bands rather than percentages, and it does not follow a chain out of the jurisdiction. Neither the Netherlands nor Bermuda publishes beneficial-ownership data that would close the chain without payment, and the Dutch beneficial-ownership register (UBO-register) has been closed to general public access since the Court of Justice judgment of 22 November 2022.
Sources
- Companies House — persons with significant control, JOHN DEWAR AND SONS LIMITED (00613551). Entry notified 6 April 2016; retrieved 29 September 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00613551/persons-with-significant-control
- Companies House — persons with significant control, BACARDI U.K. LIMITED (00366786). Statement notified 2 May 2017; retrieved 29 September 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00366786/persons-with-significant-control
- Companies House — full accounts of JOHN DEWAR AND SONS LIMITED for the year ended 31 March 2025 (notes 20, 24 and 25), filed 29 December 2025; retrieved 29 September 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00613551/filing-history/MzQ5NTY0OTY2N2FkaXF6a2N4/document
- Companies House — full accounts of BACARDI U.K. LIMITED for the year ended 31 March 2025 (note 17), filed 2 February 2026; retrieved 29 September 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00366786/filing-history/MzUwMjMxNzAwNmFkaXF6a2N4/document
- Companies House — filing history, JOHN DEWAR AND SONS LIMITED (SH01 statement of capital filed 30 April 2025); retrieved 29 September 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00613551/filing-history
Data-provider feed — rows as supplied to Zavia for Companies House, including entries the profile above does not cover. These rows are not a verbatim copy of the register: they have been found to duplicate the same person under different spellings and to keep a status of Active after an appointment ended. Where they disagree with the profile above, the profile is the checked version.
| Shareholder | Type | Holding | Source Document |
|---|---|---|---|
| BACARDI U.K. LIMITED | 100% | Companies House |
Officers
41
Directors and officers of John Dewar and Sons Limited
Companies House holds 43 appointments for John Dewar and Sons Limited, of which 39 have ended. Four directors are in office and there is no company secretary; the last secretary, Graham Martin Rainbow, resigned on 27 February 2015, and a private company is not required to appoint one. The serving directors, with the appointment dates shown on the register, are Niall William James Mitchell (1 May 2020), Stephanie Jane Macleod (1 April 2023), Matthew John Bishop (1 January 2024) and Keith James Hogg (27 May 2024). The same four, plus Sebastian Andres Deiros, are the directors listed in the directors’ report in the audited accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025.
The register records the nationality of all four as British, and their place of residence as Scotland (Mitchell, Bishop) or the United Kingdom (Macleod, Hogg); the correspondence address for each is the registered office at 12 Francis Street, London, which is a service address and not a home address. All four carry a Companies House identity-verification status of Verified, each verified by an Authorised Corporate Service Provider (Citco London Limited, supervised by HMRC) between 22 October 2025 and 8 April 2026.
Recent officer changes
- Keith James Hogg appointed director, 27 May 2024 — on the same day Sebastian Andres Deiros resigned (appointed 1 April 2023; nationality recorded as Argentine).
- Matthew John Bishop appointed director, 1 January 2024.
- Dawn Wyld resigned, 29 September 2023 (appointed 1 October 2022).
Data availability
Availability is full for this jurisdiction: Companies House publishes current and former appointments with roles, appointment and resignation dates, nationality, place of residence, month and year of birth, and, since 2025, identity-verification status. Nationality is disclosed here and is taken from the register’s own nationality field; it has not been inferred from any name, address or country of residence.
Four defects in the Zavia baseline gd_officers record should be noted, because the page’s officer cards are built from it.
- Two appointments are missing. The baseline holds 41 rows against the register’s 43. The omissions are a second directorship of Paolo Camillo Tucci, 13 July 2009 to 1 April 2023 — the baseline keeps only his first, 4 October 2005 to 31 May 2008, so a person who served for a further fourteen years is published as having left in 2008 — and a separate company-secretary appointment for John Hughes, 2 February 2002 to 31 March 2007, for someone already stored as a director. Appointments, not people, are the unit to count.
- Six pre-1993 appointment dates are not dates the register asserts. For John Alan McLauchlan, Lord Balfour of Burleigh, Gianfranco Lusso, Thomas Morrison Honeyman Miller, Gianluca Spinola and George S Weatherhead the register says only “Appointed before 15 August 1991” — the boundary of its electronic record. The baseline converts this into exact dates: 1991-08-15 for three of them, and for the other three dates the register never gave at all (1991-07-25, 1991-05-17 and 1989-04-14). None should be read as a precise appointment date.
- Only three of the register’s four company-secretary appointments are stored. With the John Hughes row missing, the baseline shows no secretary in office between February 2002 and March 2007, when one was.
- The
address_countryfield is unreliable. It reads GB for officers whose stored address localities are Geneva, Barcelona, Bermuda, Hamilton and “Holland”. It is not evidence of residence and must never be read as nationality.
Sources
- Companies House — officers of JOHN DEWAR AND SONS LIMITED (00613551), 43 appointments; retrieved 29 September 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00613551/officers
- Companies House — full accounts of JOHN DEWAR AND SONS LIMITED for the year ended 31 March 2025, directors’ report, filed 29 December 2025; retrieved 29 September 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00613551/filing-history/MzQ5NTY0OTY2N2FkaXF6a2N4/document
- Companies House — filing history, JOHN DEWAR AND SONS LIMITED; retrieved 29 September 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00613551/filing-history
Data-provider feed — rows as supplied to Zavia for Companies House, including entries the profile above does not cover. These rows are not a verbatim copy of the register: they have been found to duplicate the same person under different spellings and to keep a status of Active after an appointment ended. Where they disagree with the profile above, the profile is the checked version.
Group Structure
Group structure of John Dewar and Sons Limited
John Dewar and Sons Limited is not independent. It sits inside the Bacardi Limited group, and the chain above it is verifiable for three levels before it leaves the public record. The Companies House PSC register names Bacardi U.K. Limited (00366786) as the immediate holder; the company’s own audited accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025 name Bacardi-Martini B.V. of Rotterdam as the smallest group of undertakings to consolidate its results, and Bacardi Limited of Pembroke, Bermuda as the ultimate parent and the largest group to consolidate them. Bacardi U.K. Limited’s accounts state the same, adding that Bacardi-Martini B.V. is its own immediate parent. Beyond Bacardi Limited nothing is publicly verifiable: it is privately held and the Bermuda register is not open.
Downwards the picture is thin. The audited accounts take the Section 401 exemption from preparing consolidated financial statements but contain no list of subsidiary undertakings, and note 13 discloses only £39,000 of unlisted equity investments, described as minority shareholdings in The Scotch Whisky Heritage Centre Limited (Edinburgh) and The Combination of Rothes Distillers Limited (Rothes, Moray). One UK subsidiary is verifiable and it is historical — see the table.
Verified corporate relationships
| Entity | Country | Registration number | Relationship | Ownership | Status | Information date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bacardi U.K. Limited | United Kingdom (England and Wales) | 00366786 | Immediate parent; sole person with significant control | Ownership of shares 75% or more and voting rights 75% or more (register publishes bands); holds 6,216,582 ordinary £1 shares | Active | PSC notified 6 Apr 2016; retrieved 29 Sep 2026 |
| Bacardi-Martini B.V. | Netherlands (Rotterdam) | Not stated in the filings reviewed | Immediate parent of Bacardi U.K. Limited; smallest group to consolidate this company’s results | Ownership percentage not disclosed | Not verified from a register | Accounts y/e 31 Mar 2025 |
| Bacardi Limited | Bermuda (65 Pitts Bay Road, Pembroke HM 08) | Not verified | Ultimate parent and controlling company; largest group to consolidate | Ownership percentage not disclosed | Not verified from a register | Accounts y/e 31 Mar 2025 |
| Bacardi-Martini Limited | United Kingdom (England and Wales) | 00305960 | Sister company (same immediate parent and PSC, Bacardi U.K. Limited) | Ownership percentage not disclosed | Active; incorporated 12 Oct 1935 | PSC notified 6 Apr 2016; retrieved 29 Sep 2026 |
| William Lawson Distillers Limited (formerly JOHN DEWAR & SONS. LIMITED) | United Kingdom (Scotland) | SC015075 | Former direct subsidiary — John Dewar and Sons Limited was its sole PSC | Ownership of shares 75% or more and voting rights 75% or more (band) | Dissolved 22 Sep 2020 by voluntary strike-off | PSC notified 6 Apr 2016; final Gazette 22 Sep 2020 |
Recent structural changes
- 24 April 2025 — intra-group recapitalisation. The company issued 2,500,000 ordinary £1 shares at £100 each, raising £250,000,000 (£2.5m to share capital, £247.5m to share premium), and applied the whole of it to repay loans from group undertakings. Issued capital rose from 3,716,582 to 6,216,582 ordinary shares; the SH01 was filed on 30 April 2025. Loans from group undertakings stood at £490.4m at 31 March 2025 (2024: £419.1m).
- 11 June to 22 September 2020 — subsidiary struck off. William Lawson Distillers Limited (SC015075), the registration that had carried the name JOHN DEWAR & SONS. LIMITED from 1928 to 1998, applied for voluntary strike-off on 11 June 2020 (DS01), was noticed in the Gazette on 23 June 2020 and was dissolved on 22 September 2020.
Data availability
Availability is parent only. The UK PSC register and filed accounts establish the immediate parent, the immediate parent’s own parent and the ultimate parent with dates, but the UK register does not follow a chain beyond its own jurisdiction, and no Dutch or Bermudian source consulted publishes the intervening ownership free of charge; the Bermuda registrar’s web endpoints did not respond on 29 September 2026. No current subsidiary of this company is verifiable from the filings. The Zavia baseline group tree places the company correctly beneath Bacardi U.K. Limited, Bacardi-Martini B.V. and Bacardi Limited, but it carries no ownership percentages and no relationship types, it inserts an entity between Bacardi-Martini B.V. and Bacardi Limited (Bacardi-Martini & Rossi Holdings N.V., Curaçao) that no filing reviewed here confirms, it shows a single child — John Dewar & Sons Venezuela, C.A. — that could not be verified from any register available free of charge, and it omits the dissolved Scottish subsidiary entirely.
Sources
- Companies House — persons with significant control, JOHN DEWAR AND SONS LIMITED (00613551). Notified 6 April 2016; retrieved 29 September 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00613551/persons-with-significant-control
- Companies House — full accounts of JOHN DEWAR AND SONS LIMITED, year ended 31 March 2025 (notes 13, 22, 24 and 25), filed 29 December 2025; retrieved 29 September 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00613551/filing-history/MzQ5NTY0OTY2N2FkaXF6a2N4/document
- Companies House — full accounts of BACARDI U.K. LIMITED, year ended 31 March 2025 (note 17), filed 2 February 2026; retrieved 29 September 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00366786/filing-history/MzUwMjMxNzAwNmFkaXF6a2N4/document
- Companies House — persons with significant control, BACARDI-MARTINI LIMITED (00305960); retrieved 29 September 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00305960/persons-with-significant-control
- Companies House — company overview and filing history, WILLIAM LAWSON DISTILLERS LIMITED (SC015075), dissolved 22 September 2020; retrieved 29 September 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/SC015075
- Companies House — persons with significant control, WILLIAM LAWSON DISTILLERS LIMITED (SC015075); retrieved 29 September 2026. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/SC015075/persons-with-significant-control
Data-provider feed — rows as supplied to Zavia for Companies House, including entries the profile above does not cover. These rows are not a verbatim copy of the register: they have been found to duplicate the same person under different spellings and to keep a status of Active after an appointment ended. Where they disagree with the profile above, the profile is the checked version.
Bacardi Limited
Bermuda
Get complete shareholder and officer records, ultimate beneficial owner resolution, and ongoing ownership monitoring.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does JOHN DEWAR AND SONS LIMITED do?
John Dewar and Sons Limited distils, warehouses, blends, bottles and sells Scotch whisky, gin and ready-to-serve cocktails. Its filed strategic report for the year ended 31 March 2025 states that it operates five malt whisky distilleries in Scotland and one gin distillery in England, producing Scotch whisky under the Dewar's and William Lawson's trademarks and gin under the Bombay Sapphire trademark.
Who owns JOHN DEWAR AND SONS LIMITED?
One shareholder is disclosed: Bacardi U.K. Limited (England and Wales, 00366786), recorded on the Companies House PSC register since 6 April 2016 as holding 75% or more of the shares and voting rights. Filings show issued capital of 6,216,582 ordinary GBP 1 shares following the allotment of 24 April 2025.
Who is JOHN DEWAR AND SONS LIMITED's UBO (Ultimate Beneficial Owner)?
No ultimate beneficial owner is identified on any public record and none can be calculated. Bacardi U.K. Limited's own PSC register carries a statement, notified 2 May 2017, that there is no registrable person or relevant legal entity above it, and the chain then rests on filed accounts naming Bacardi-Martini B.V. (Rotterdam) and, as ultimate parent and controlling company, the privately held Bacardi Limited of Pembroke, Bermuda, whose own ownership is not publicly verifiable.
What is JOHN DEWAR AND SONS LIMITED's company registration number?
JOHN DEWAR AND SONS LIMITED's registration number is 00613551, filed with Companies House in United Kingdom. Its current status on the register is active.
Is JOHN DEWAR AND SONS LIMITED still an active company?
JOHN DEWAR AND SONS LIMITED's status on Companies House is listed as active.
When was JOHN DEWAR AND SONS LIMITED incorporated?
JOHN DEWAR AND SONS LIMITED was incorporated on 24 October 1958, according to Companies House.
What is JOHN DEWAR AND SONS LIMITED's registered address?
The registered address on file for JOHN DEWAR AND SONS LIMITED is London, United Kingdom.
What legal structure is JOHN DEWAR AND SONS LIMITED registered as?
JOHN DEWAR AND SONS LIMITED is registered as a Private limited company (Ltd.) in United Kingdom.
What is JOHN DEWAR AND SONS LIMITED's revenue?
For the year ended 31 March 2025 the company's own audited accounts report revenue of GBP 227.1 million (2024: GBP 227.1 million), operating profit of GBP 39.7 million and profit for the year of GBP 8.0 million (2024: GBP 14.1 million), with average monthly headcount of 563. These are entity-level figures, not group figures.
Is JOHN DEWAR AND SONS LIMITED listed on a stock exchange?
The company is private and its shares are not admitted to trading on any stock exchange. It was registered in England and Wales on 24 October 1958 as Clan Munro Whisky Limited, became William Lawson Distillers Limited on 29 September 1972 and John Dewar and Sons Limited on 16 July 1998.
Who are the officers/directors of JOHN DEWAR AND SONS LIMITED?
Companies House holds 43 appointments, of which 39 have ended. Four directors are in office – Niall William James Mitchell (1 May 2020), Stephanie Jane Macleod (1 April 2023), Matthew John Bishop (1 January 2024) and Keith James Hogg (27 May 2024) – and there has been no company secretary since 27 February 2015.
Does JOHN DEWAR AND SONS LIMITED have a parent company or subsidiaries?
The company is part of the Bacardi Limited group. Bacardi U.K. Limited (00366786) is its immediate parent and sole PSC; filed accounts name Bacardi-Martini B.V. of Rotterdam as the smallest group to consolidate its results and Bacardi Limited of Pembroke, Bermuda as ultimate parent. Its one verifiable UK subsidiary, William Lawson Distillers Limited (SC015075), was dissolved on 22 September 2020.
Can Zavia monitor changes to JOHN DEWAR AND SONS LIMITED's ownership over time?
This profile reflects a point-in-time snapshot from Companies House. Zavia's monitoring API can track changes to JOHN DEWAR AND SONS LIMITED's registered shareholders, officers, and group structure going forward, flagging updates as they're filed rather than requiring a manual recheck.
Can I access JOHN DEWAR AND SONS LIMITED's data through an API?
Yes. Zavia's API connects directly to official government ownership registries across 195 countries and territories, including United Kingdom, so records like JOHN DEWAR AND SONS LIMITED's registration, shareholder, UBO, and group-structure data can be queried programmatically instead of viewed one page at a time.
Where does this company information come from, and how current is it?
This record is sourced directly from Companies House and was last synced on 22 September 2026.