Lord Laing of Dunphail, 87, chairman and life president of United Biscuits, treasurer of Conservative Party [telegraph.co.uk]

[Hoodoo]

Lord Laing of Dunphail

Lord Laing of Dunphail, who died on June 21 aged 87, was chairman and
life president of United Biscuits, and treasurer of the Conservative Party.

Published: 5:47PM BST 27 Jun 2010
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/finance-obituaries/7857772/Lord-Laing-of-Dunphail.html

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Lord Laing of Dunphail


Hector Laing was a charismatic and mercurial business leader who ran the
United Biscuits conglomerate in the paternalistic style of the family
company it had been for two generations before him. As chairman from
1972 to 1990, he presided over a period of relentless expansion which
gave him a 50 per cent share of the British biscuit market as well as a
portfolio of other food products ranging from salted peanuts to frozen
prawns.

Laing could be a flamboyant competitor: offered a rival company’s cheese
biscuits at a City lunch, he left the table and threw them out of the
window. But he was also a caring employer, who took the trouble to talk
to as many as possible of his 46,000 workforce in annual factory-floor
meetings and — despite inevitable redundancies as consumer tastes
changed and foreign competition arrived — offered loyal staff an unusual
degree of job security: 10 years’ service with United Biscuits virtually
guaranteed a job for life.

He disapproved of many of the corporate trends of the 1980s, including
what he saw as the unpatriotic willingness of institutional shareholders
to accept offers from hostile foreign bidders for British companies. His
own takeovers were generally amicable, and he was never an asset
stripper — so it was particularly galling for him to be defeated by Lord
Hanson, arch-exponent of that technique, in a 1986 bid battle for
Imperial, the brewing and tobacco group, from which Hanson reaped giant
profits.

Laing was also wary of banks that were prepared to intervene on the
bidder’s side against companies that had formerly been their clients — a
facet of the influence of American investment banks in the post-Big Bang
City. He made a point of seeking assurances from Royal Bank of Scotland,
which had lent his grandfather the money to acquire the family’s stake
in United Biscuits’ predecessor, that it would never act against him.

Laing’s wider belief in what came to be known as corporate social
responsibility was expressed through his chairmanship from 1987 to 1991
of Business in the Community, and in his role as co-founder in 1986 of
the Per Cent Club, which encouraged public companies to give one per
cent of their profits to good causes.

If he was out of tune with the mood of the 1980s in his business
philosophy, he was nevertheless an ardent industrial moderniser. He once
said that his biggest mistake was to have focused too much on marketing
and acquisitions in the middle years of his chairmanship, and not enough
on the efficiency of his factories. Though he could be maddening to work
for, he generated enormous loyalty and admiration: his own chief
executive once described him, in a carefully chosen phrase, as “the sort
of man people would die for 90 per cent of the time”.

Hector Laing was born in Edinburgh on May 12 1923. He was a grandson of
Alexander Grant, inventor of that staple of the British elevenses, the
digestive biscuit. As a young baker from Forres in Morayshire, Grant had
had the temerity to present himself at the bakery of Robert McVitie in
Queensferry Street, Edinburgh, in 1887 and ask for a job. Told that
there were no vacancies, he picked up a scone, examined it closely, and
announced: “Ye canna mak’ scones in Edinburgh.” McVitie relented and
took him on.

In 1910 Grant succeeded as managing director of what had grown, as
McVitie & Price, to be a national manufacturer. Rich Tea biscuits were
produced to satisfy refined English tastes — the Scots liked a coarser
bite — while Grant himself guarded the secret recipe for the hugely
popular digestive. In 1922 Grant’s daughter Margaret married Hector
Laing senior who, having been taken into the business, was made to work
a shift on the morning of his wedding.

Their son Hector — a page at the 1937 Coronation — recalled being
allowed as a small boy to cut out oatcakes at the factory before he went
to school. He was educated at Loretto, but having been a rebellious
pupil he surprised himself by doing well enough to win a place at
Cambridge. By his own account, he was so surprised that he uttered the
word “Jesus”, to which his headmaster replied that Jesus College would
indeed be very suitable for him.

He spent a year there studying Agriculture before war service
intervened. He was commissioned in the Scots Guards, joining the
armoured 3rd Battalion, whose subalterns included Robert Runcie, later
Archbishop of Canterbury, the future Home Secretary William Whitelaw and
a roll-call of pillars-to-be of the Scottish establishment. Laing’s tank
squadron landed in Normandy and fought all the way across north-west
Europe: he was mentioned in despatches, awarded the US Bronze Star and
promoted to captain.

Demobilised in 1947, Laing returned to become a director of McVitie &
Price, which shortly merged with Macfarlane Lang to form the foundation
of United Biscuits. He gained experience in several factories and,
although never one to engage closely with technical detail, developed an
expertise in automated production during a long spell as manager of the
group’s giant plant at Harlesden in west London.

He became managing director in 1964, and was a driving force in United
Biscuits’ continuing expansion. Other Scottish bakeries, including
William Crawford of Tartan shortbread fame, joined in the early 1960s.
New members of the group in the 1970s included Keebler, an American
manufacturer of “cookies and crackers” almost as big as United Biscuits
itself; Carr’s of Carlisle, inventors of the water biscuit; and the
chocolate maker Terry’s of York.

The Wimpy and Pizzaland fast-food outlets proved less successful
additions, and were eventually sold again. The acquisition in 1988 of
the frozen seafoods group Ross Young was also seen as a diversification
too far, and in the last years of Laing’s reign the need for
rationalisation was pressing. But his enthusiasm for new markets was
undimmed. One of his last gambits was a joint venture in China, and in
an interview shortly before his retirement he said that the sound of a
billion Chinese mouths munching digestives would allow him to die happy.

Laing was also a long-serving member of the Court of the Bank of
England, where he had a reputation for rarely reading the board papers
before meetings. He was a director of Allied Lyons and of Exxon, the US
oil company; chairman of the Food & Drink Industries Council; and
president of the European Catering Association. He was knighted in 1978.

At the request of Robert Runcie, he was chairman from 1983 to 1997 of
the Lambeth Fund, which supports the Archbishop of Canterbury’s office
and ministry. Loyalty to other wartime comrades extended to finding jobs
for several of his tank crew (one of them was his company driver),
giving them shares in United Biscuits — and in some cases even paying
their poll tax, a levy which he regarded as unfair despite his high
regard for Margaret Thatcher.

His distaste for the harsher manifestations of Thatcherism did not
impede a warm personal friendship with the prime minister which extended
to the offer of his private plane to help find her son Mark when he went
missing in the Sahara during a car rally. The Thatchers also
occasionally holidayed at Dunphail, the Morayshire estate that Laing had
inherited from his grandfather. United Biscuits became a major donor to
Tory coffers, and in 1988 Laing became party treasurer, a role he
fulfilled until 1993.

Though created a life peer in 1991, Laing was happy to leave policy
debate to professional politicians. But in May 2004 he was one of five
Tory peers who signed a letter urging Conservatives to vote for Ukip in
the imminent European election. The other four were immediately expelled
by the then party leader, Michael Howard, but Laing announced that “on
reflection” he should not have signed, and was allowed to keep the Tory
whip.

Laing held a pilot’s licence and created an aviation subsidiary of
United Biscuits, based at Denham airfield near his home at Gerrards
Cross in Buckinghamshire. His managers were encouraged to use company
aircraft for factory visits, at the risk of being stranded if the pilot
had to divert to pick up a member of the chairman’s family; a more
hair-raising option was to be flown by the chairman himself. In later
years he devoted himself to the less dangerous pastime of tending his
splendid gardens at Gerrards Cross and Dunphail.

A devout churchman, Laing declared that “I believe one has a personal
relationship with God”, but he declined to intellectualise his faith: “I
leave that to the theologians.”

Hector Laing married, in 1950, Marian Laurie, daughter of Major-General
Sir John Laurie, 6th Bt. They had three sons.

[Hoodoo]

Lord Laing of Dunphail obituary

Chairman of United Biscuits and a treasurer of the Tory party under
Margaret Thatcher

David Brewerton
guardian.co.uk, Monday 12 July 2010 18.22 BST
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jul/12/lord-laing-of-dunphail-obituary

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Lord Laing of Dunphail was a close friend of Margaret Thatcher.

The conversation went something like this: "I'm sorry, Trigg Lane
heliport closed five minutes ago." "We have Sir Hector Laing on board."
"No problem. Trigg Lane will be closing in 15 minutes' time." It was the
early 1980s, and that exchange illustrates the pulling power of Lord
Laing of Dunphail, who has died aged 87. Doors rarely closed on Laing,
chairman and later president of United Biscuits, former treasurer of the
Conservative party, close friend of Margaret Thatcher, private pilot,
wartime tank commander, long-serving director of the Bank of England and
churchman. He was a supreme networker, who enjoyed entertaining guests –
including prime ministers and governors of the Bank of England – at
Dunphail, the Morayshire estate he inherited from his maternal grandfather.

Laing was born in Edinburgh into Scots aristocracy. His grandfather, a
wealthy landowner, was Sir Alexander Grant, inventor of the digestive
biscuit. Hector Laing Sr joined the biscuit business McVitie & Price and
married the owner's daughter, Margaret.

Hector Jr enjoyed a conventional privileged education, Loretto school in
Musselburgh, followed by Jesus College, Cambridge, and was commissioned
into the Scots Guards in 1942. A tank commander, he landed in Normandy
and continued through northern Europe, being mentioned in dispatches in
1944 and awarded the US Bronze Star.

On demobilisation in 1947, it was almost inevitable that he would become
a director of the family business. The following year McVitie & Price
merged with MacFarlane Lang to create United Biscuits. Three years into
the merger, Laing was appointed to the UB board and fixed his attention
on the way in which biscuits were produced and the benefits to be gained
from automation.

For 16 years he managed the factory in Harlesden, west London, one of
the biggest plants in Europe, before becoming managing director of the
group in 1964. For more than 30 years, acquisition followed acquisition,
and although there were one or two mistakes when the group departed from
its core business, most were highly successful. However, after a decline
in performance, the company lost its independence in April 2000 and was
taken over by a European financial consortium, Finalrealm.

As UB grew, so did the reputation of Laing. In 1972, he was made group
chairman and the following year became a director of the Bank of
England, where he served for 18 years. He also accepted positions on a
number of business and trade organisations, and was knighted in 1978. In
1986, UB became involved in a bitter takeover battle for Imperial Group,
the tobacco combine, with the Hanson group, which the latter won.

A lifelong Tory supporter, Laing was nevertheless out of sympathy with
some of the harsher aspects of the party. He believed the success of any
enterprise rested on its employees and went out of his way to ensure
that UB's workforce was treated well. He spent a huge amount of time in
the factories getting to know the workforce and took a close interest in
their pension entitlements. After a decade working for UB, employees
could virtually count on a "job for life". He also used his influence,
as one of the driving forces in Business in the Community, to encourage
corporate giving through the PerCent Club.

UB became better known, however, for its political donations to the
Conservatives. During the 80s, UB was the party's major corporate donor,
so it was not surprising that Laing became an adviser and friend to
Thatcher.

On occasions he made company aircraft available to the prime minister
(and also to the Bank of England when it could not find a plane to
return the then governor, Sir Robin Leigh-Pemberton, to London during a
sterling crisis). In 1988 he accepted the post of Conservative party
treasurer, which he held for five years. In 1990, he retired as chairman
of UB and the following year was created a life peer.

He maintained there was "nothing clever" about business. He believed if
you hired good people, paid them well, invested in the best machinery,
and gave the consumer value for money, success would follow. He once
said he would die a happy man if he could hear the sound of a billion
Chinese people munching on digestive biscuits.

He is survived by his wife, Marian, whom he married in 1950, and his
three sons, Mark, Robert and Anthony.

• Hector Laing, Baron Laing of Dunphail, businessman, born 12 May 1923;
died 21 June 2010