Shortly after Prohibition ended in the United States, Heaven Hill Brands, was founded in Bardstown, Kentucky by the Shapira family to produce and market Bourbon and premium American whiskeys. At the time, it was as speculative a new business venture as the dot com start-ups of the 1990’s — a company founded with no brands, no available stocks of whiskey, and at the height of the Great Depression. Today, the company is the largest independent, family-owned and operated producer and marketer of distilled spirits in the country. According to industry analysts, Heaven Hill is now the seventh largest spirits supplier in the United States and second largest holder of aging Bourbon whiskey in the world with an inventory in excess of 1,000,000 barrels.