What Company Makes Costco's Kirkland Brand Scotch?

Costco's bountiful supply of everything a person could need has made it a one-stop shop for countless families. The wholesale superstore is known for a lot of things: huge amounts of bulk items, massive warehouse-like aisles, and perhaps most notably, its Kirkland Signature brand. Kirkland's iconic black, white, and red logo can be found on pet food, batteries, seafood, candy, and much more. You can find other brands on Costco's shelves, but Kirkland products dominate the inventory. Along with frozen pizzas and sweatshirts, shoppers can also find a wide array of quality liquor under the Kirkland label, including Kirkland brand scotch.

However, there's a secret behind the Kirkland brand — it's one of the many untold truths about Costco. While Costco created the Kirkland brand and distributes it throughout their stores, Kirkland products are actually made by third parties — usually by large brands that are famous in their own right. For example, Kirkland's coffee is produced by Starbucks, and its batteries are made by Duracell. As for Costco's extensive alcohol selection, no one company supplies all the booze. The tequila, beer, wine, and other liquors are all made by different producers. You can tell who made each bottle by looking carefully at the packaging, and if you investigate Kirkland brand scotch, you'll see that it was actually bottled by the whiskey company Alexander Murray.

Alexander Murray is a Californian company that was conceived by a group of Scottish immigrants in 2004, and in addition to Costco, the company provides its scotch to multiple stores including Trader Joe's and Total Wines & More. Alexander Murray provides all five of its produced scotches to Costco, which include everything from 3-year-old to 20-year-old blends, as well as an Islay Single Malt Scotch whisky with a No Age Statement. But while the spirit maker produces and bottles the scotch, interestingly, it outsources the distilling to a different, partner company. This is perhaps not altogether surprising given the volume these retailers must demand. And for those not as picky about more expensive single-barrel scotches, Alexander Murray is able to keep costs reasonable by creating blends from multiple distilleries in order to fulfill the large inventory requirements.

The decision for Costco to have one universal private label goes back to 1995. Before then, Costco had a large number of private brands, but creating Kirkland was a way to streamline Costco's image as well as cut down on the costs of creating labels for each individual brand. As Christopher Durham, president of Retail Brands Institute told CNN, "Kirkland is a proxy brand for Costco. It really means Costco." 

Rather than appeal to a wide variety of shoppers with a wide variety of brands, Costco uses Kirkland to appeal to all types of shopping demographics. The single brand name helps shoppers see a consistent product and image. In time, shoppers equated Kirkland with high-quality, affordable products, which are traits they then began associating with Costco. Plus, using its own branding is also cost-effective as it limits the need to spend more on packaging

Despite the somewhat mysterious origins, Kirkland brand scotch is incredibly popular. In fact, Forbes reports that Costco sells more Scotch whisky than any other store in North America. The overall consensus among consumers is that most of the bottles are pretty good buys, especially for the price. Over on Reddit, scotch reviewer mackenzieob95 gave Kirkland's Blended Scotch Whisky a 78/100, noting that it had a wonderful scent and that it was quite tasty. Professional wine and spirits reviewer Joseph V. Micallef wrote for Forbes that the Single Malt Scotch Whisky had lovely caramel and smoky notes, and that "Kirkland Signature Scotch whiskies consistently represent one of the best Scotch whisky values available in North America." Across the internet, drinkers praise the various bottles' full-bodied tastes and sweet notes of vanilla and caramel.

Prices vary depending on where you shop, but in the United States a bottle of Kirkland Signature Blended Scotch Whisky costs just over $50. You can definitely find scotch for less than that, but many reviewers agree that you won't find any that cheap of the same quality. And that combination of quality and affordability is the secret behind the success of the brand — it benefits savvy shoppers who flock to it, which benefits in turn benefits the retailer. Costco's private label Kirkland allows it to sell its products for low prices, and suppliers like Alexander Murray ensure that items like Scotch whisky are worth buying.