With Last Call for Diageo in Norwalk, a Connecticut Legacy Comes Full Circle
Diageo was formed by the December 1997 merger of the British alcohol giants Grand Metropolitan and Guinness. Grand Metropolitan’s predecessor companies included Heublein, created by a German emigrant named Andrew Heublein and his sons, Gilbert and Louis. Andrew Heublein established a Hartford hotel in 1859, forming the foundation for a company that would eventually achieve worldwide fame.
The Heublein name is forgotten by many in southwestern Connecticut, where Diageo moved its headquarters in 1998, after adopting the Diageo name, bringing employees from Hartford to join the former Guinness employees.
But it’s a name still held dear by many in Hartford, where Heublein built up a distillery for vodka and other spirits that would employ hundreds; stumbled onto what would become its Prohibition-era savior in A.1. Sauce; and over time added other household brands like Grey Poupon.
This story, from The (Norwalk) Hour, is well worth reading.