History of John Watson & Co

John Watson and Company is one of Scotland’s most iconic businesses and, incredibly, can trace its history back more than 200 years.

It has been printing continuously since 1820, surviving economic downturns, the Great Depression and Two World Wars.

It is thanks in no small part to the guidance and vision of the generations of Watson family members who have steered it to such success.

Originally based in a run-down tenement in Black Street, “Watsons” as it is affectionately known by so many customers also had a retail presence in St Vincent Place – scene of a dramatic tram crash which hit the headlines.

It was when John Watson took over in 1976 that the business really started to make its presence felt on the global stage.

It was his clever decision to diversify more fully into label printing that sealed the future success of the business. Commercial printing was under severe financial pressure and a drop in demand at home meant that a bigger move into label printing was required.

Had John Watson’s remained entirely in commercial printing it would have been unable to grow at such a rapid pace and take advantage of worldwide demand for Scotch whisky labels.

Strong levels of investment followed at the Company’s Headquarters in Townhead – which were bought to cope with ever increasing levels of business – culminating in £5 million worth of state of the art new printing presses between 2008 and 2010.

John Watson and Co has reported profits in every year of John’s lengthy stewardship with a consistent £10 million plus turnover in the last five years of trading before his retirement.

In 2013, aged 65 John sold the iconic John Watson and Company business in a sensational multi-million pound deal to Multi-Color Corporation of Ohio in the US saying at the time that he was leaving “at the top.”

Those words proved to be entirely accurate as in its final year John Watson and Company marked a record year with a spectacular 183 per cent rise in profits – a truly remarkable achievement given the fragile state of the economy at the time.

Crucially, the deal which resulted in the sale of the business ensured that there were to be no redundancies at the business along with continued investment.

Each year the Company was producing some 20 million labels a week for many of the major players in the Scotch Whisky industry. The Company had an impressive list of blue chip customers in the drinks industry in general and the Scotch Whisky and Irish Whiskey industries in particular. John Watson and Co has reported profits in every year of John’s lengthy stewardship.