During the tasting, there were a few people who felt I misspoke when I referred to Laphroaig's parent company as "Fortune Brands". People in the industry tend to think of Laphroaig as being part of the "Future Brands" staple. Both are technically correct, though it's a bit more complicated than that.
The parent company that owns the Laphoraig distillery and brand is Fortune Brands. They are traded on the NYSE under the ticker symbol FO. They have a subsidiary under that parent called Beam Global Spirits, which manages their entire liquor portfolio. From the name you can guess that Jim Beam is a prominent part of that portfolio; but it also includes brands such as Canadian Club, Sauza, Courvoiser, and DeKuyper.
Underneath Beam Global is a company called Future Brands. They are the sole distributor of Fortune Brands spirits within the USA.
If you buy Laphroaig at the wholesale level in the USA, you're probably getting it from Future Brands. If you're getting it outside the USA, it's probably from Maxxium. It's all the same company, and is more or less transparent than company relationships like Pernod Ricard or Diageo.
Of course my blaming of some person in Kentucky dictating the whims of production Scotland is misapplied. Fortune Brands is headquartered in Deerfield, Illinois. It's probably more appropriate to point to the headquarters location rather than connecting Jim Beam Brands as being a Kentucky business. International business is way more complicated than a finger of blame, but it makes for easy scapegoats.