William Whiteley & Co is a blending company founded in Leith in 1922. It made a large amount of money during Prohibition thanks to the illegal exportat of its blend King’s Ransom. In 1933, it bought the Edradour distillery in Pitlochry, formerly known as Glenforres. William Whiteley & Co used the distillery to create a blended malt from Edradour and another Highland malt bottled under the name Glenforres—further adding to the confusion over what the product was by displaying the name of the subsidiary in charge of its production, Glenforres-Glenlivet Distillery Co. In 1982, the distillery was sold to Campbell & Son, a subsidiary of Pernod Ricard, which ceased production of the brands.

A Glenforres 5 Year Old bottled in the 1980s and imported to Italy by Alberti Benevento. Glenforres was a blended malt that used Edradour as its main ingredient (Glenforres being the old name for the distillery). The label could cause some confusion through the inclusion of the statement “Glenforres Glenlivet Distillery”, despite it being a blended malt. At the time, Edradour’’s production was dedicated entirely to the blends created by William Whiteley & Co, also responsible for King’’s Ransom. Things changed when the group was bought by Pernod Ricard in 1982 and with the release of Edradour’’s first single malt in 1986.