In the autumn of 1886, William Grant, a shoemaker's son from Dufftown and manager at Mortlach distillery, purchased the equipment from Cardhu distillery (including stills and a water wheel) from Elizabeth Cumming for £120. Since his annual salary was only £100, it took him many years to save enough money. He, his wife, and nine children gathered stones from the banks of the River Fiddich to build a distillery on the edge of a small town called 'Glenfiddich,' which means 'Valley of the Deer' in Gaelic. On Christmas 1887, the distillery produced its first spirit. His entire family joined William Grant's enterprise, which remains controlled by his descendants to this day, currently in its fifth generation. Fortunately, shortly after Glenfiddich's launch, the Aberdeen blending firm William Williams & Sons placed a weekly order for 400 gallons, which was the new distillery's entire production capacity. Soon, Glenfiddich began selling its own blended whisky, including Standfast (the Grant family motto), and exported it to overseas markets, while also making it available in the UK domestic market. By 1914, the company had established 63 agencies worldwide. When the founder's grandson, William Grant Gordon, passed away in 1953, his two sons, 26-year-old Charles and 22-year-old Sandy, inherited the business. The two formed a strong team. Charles was the main driving force behind Glenfiddich distillery and led the company for many years; Sandy convinced the family board of directors to promote Glenfiddich as a single malt whisky. In 1963, the decision-makers at William Grant & Sons made an unprecedented decision: to bottle Glenfiddich as Pure Malt (known as Straight Malt in the US) and market it using the promotional approach of blended Scotch whisky—initially in the UK domestic market, then expanding overseas. This risk proved hugely successful, with export sales growing from 4,000 cases in 1964 to 119,500 cases in 1974. That year, the company received the Queen's Award for Export Achievement, becoming the first whisky company to receive this honor.

Although Glenfiddich has the most pot stills of any distillery in the world, it is quite traditional in many respects: all stills are direct-fired (gas-fired since 2003, previously coal-fired); the distillery has its own coopers and coppersmiths; long-term maturation is completed entirely on-site; until recently, all bottling was done locally (since 2007, bottling of Glenfiddich 12 Year Old has been completed in Bellshill near Glasgow, though the spirit is still diluted with process water from the Robbie Dhu spring). Glenfiddich opened a visitor centre in 1969, becoming the first distillery to establish one. Today, it is rated as a 5-star attraction by VisitScotland and employs a summer team of 40 people, speaking 11 languages and receiving visitors from 105-110 countries. The Grant family has invested £2 million in visitor facilities and offers tours at different price points. It is the second most visited distillery in Scotland, attracting over 80,000 visitors annually. In spring 2008, a magnificent, life-size bronze stag created by renowned sculptor Tessa Campbell Fraser was unveiled. The stag has long been the symbol of the distillery: 'fiddich' derives from the Gaelic 'fiadh', meaning 'deer'. The Grant company designed and produced a unique triangular bottle in 1956 for their Standfast blend, later used for Glenfiddich Single Malt. The bottle was designed by Hans Schleger. More innovatively, the family seized the opportunity offered by airport duty-free shops (the first duty-free shop opened in Shannon in 1968). Since British tourists' first encounter with malt whisky essentially occurs on holiday, this added many pleasant associations to malt whisky. Another simple but effective promotion was providing Standfast bottles filled with colored water as stage props, which unexpectedly became a common sight in 1960s television dramas! Glenfiddich's sales exceeded 1 million cases in 2011, with sales surpassing £1 billion in 2012. The brand has long been the world's best-selling single malt whisky, although it was briefly overtaken by Glenlivet in 2014. Sales grew by 9% in 2016 (reaching 14.3 million bottles), regaining the top position. Due to increased demand, Glenfiddich is currently building an independent new distillery, equipped with 5 wash stills and 10 spirit stills. Combined with the existing distillery, capacity will increase to 18-20 million liters of pure alcohol. The new distillery is expected to commence production in 2020.