Best known as a butcher, this serial entrepreneur has built an impressively diverse range of businesses, from wood laminates to internet TV streaming

by Kevin Scott

For a Perthshire lad who grew up determined to be a butcher, Simon Howie has carved a business empire that has made him one of the country’s most successful entrepreneurs.  

He may be best known for the eponymous range of meat products, but his interests stretch to commercial and industrial properties, laminate flooring, broadcasting, shipping services, real estate, energy, and even lavatories. And then there’s the Scottish dance band he leads in his spare time.

 “We could spend half an hour on one subject,” he says. “What we have are a range of dirty hands businesses where there are common links and challenges.”

A reserved figure, but bustling with a quiet energy, Howie moves quickly from one topic to the next, whether lamenting the difficulties facing start-up businesses to hammering what he sees as anti-business politicians “whatever colour their tie”, or highlighting with firmness, rather than modesty, how none of his success would be possible without the people around him.

And while he discusses with passion any aspect of his empire, it is butchery that provokes the lengthiest responses to questions – one point about the quality of Scottish meat (“the best in the world”) leads to a fascinating account of how cattle were bred smaller to import to South America and then bred back up to a regular size.

As the business with his name on it, Mr Howie keeps his food “cluster” close. Literally. He lives on the farm in rural Dunning next to the state-of-the-art factory where 120 people work.

“It’s what I am. I’m a butcher,” he says. “I trained, worked behind the counter, learned my trade. I’ve moved on a bit since then but I still love the industry and its people.”

Last year, the business – which also supplies many of the best restaurants and hotels in the country – made a pre-tax profit of £2.6m on sales of £14.7m. And there is a plan in place to double turnover by 2021. “England is our biggest and best export opportunity,” he says. “We’ve got a business doing 30 per cent in the rest of the UK and 70 per cent in Scotland. We want to turn that around, 30 per cent in Scotland and 70 per cent in the rest of the UK. Scotland would be broadly the same, but we’d be bigger everywhere else.”

It all began for Howie when his farmer dad helped him secure a Saturday job at his local butcher and when he was just 19 the family loaned him £2,100 to buy a shop in Dunning. Typically for a man with foresight, he opened on December 16 1986, just in time for the festive rush.

Five years later, Howie received a quote for wood panelling in the shop, something that he says “started a daisy chain”.

“The guy said ‘take it or leave it’ on his price, and I realised he was getting his money too easily, so I rented a place in Perth and started Shore Laminates.”

Shore Laminates continues to be a hugely important part of the mix, and it was later joined by Rossco Properties after Mr Howie in 1995 bought his farm and constructed a factory and dry store, leading to him to see the potential in commercial and industrial properties.

“We bought buildings that were tired and unloved. We did them up and found tenants for them at £2 to £3 per square foot,” he says.

Rossco now operates 1.5 million square feet of space across the UK and recently let out a 320,000sq ft facility at the Port of Grangemouth.

Further ventures followed, including Thrislington Cubicles, a toilet cubicle provider which last month won a contract to supply the new $5 billion Apple Campus in California; Mermaid Panels, a manufacturer of designer shower panels; Pacitti Jones, the estate agents; shipping service firm Calport; and Cerberus, a broadcast over broadband video solutions provider.

Group turnover has passed the £50m mark, and more than 450 people are employed.

Of course it hasn’t all been plain sailing. Shore Energy was established to create an energy from waste business, but its launch has been held up by planning delays and objections from locals in North Lanarkshire. After a number of court cases, Mr Howie says the £50m project will begin construction next year.

Challenges have come and gone, both micro and macro, and Brexit, he believes, is just another change that will prove troublesome in the short-term, particularly because of the sterling’s weakness: Shore Laminates imports a lot of products from the Middle East and South America.

“We’re paying dollars, but we’re also selling in dollars so we’ve got a hedge, but it’s not perfect.”

When looking at new ventures, there are some simple rules that have served him well.

“Don’t passively invest,” he says. “Don’t give people money and ask them to turn it into more. We invest in a few businesses that we get heavily involved with operationally. We let managers get on with the day to day and big decisions are made collectively.”

Jim Park has worked with Howie since that first butchers shop, while Kevin Taylor is a co-investor in the Dupplin Investments vehicle that is behind a number of Howie’s more recent ventures.

“You need superstars that will go the extra mile, and most of them I would have as equity participants,” he says.

The catalyst for many investments was the sale of the Shore Recycling business – which was set up in 2002 to recycle fridges and electrical goods. Viridor paid £23m for the business in 2008.

Deals like this have set Howie up for life, but he believes the current political machines at both Westminster and Holyrood are making life easier for those who have already made it, and difficult for start-ups.

He is particularly unimpressed by the “quasi-redistribution of wealth” that is the business rates revaluation which comes into effect on April 1.

“The working man and woman need to realise that this isn’t all about businesses getting penalties and thinking ‘it’s not my problem’. It actually is. That government is taking £100m [extra] from big companies doesn’t make it £100m better off because they don’t factor in behavioural change. A plus B does not equal C,” he says.

So-called void rates, where building owners now pay 90 per cent of the rates on a vacant site – where previously there was an exemption – also comes in for attack.

“We’ve got a lot of good industrial land we’d like to build on. Why would we go and stick up a load of buildings and pay the local authority a load of void rates?”

Longer-term, he says, this will hinder the growth of new businesses.

His solution would be to help businesses drive their top line, rather than “using businesses to get the government out of a fix”.

“If we can concentrate on getting £5m turnover companies to £7m or £8m the money will just flow down through the system.”

This, he argues, would create an economy where “wealth creation comes before dodging bullets”.

“We should be engendering a culture of optimism and positivity, but the government having its hands in our pockets is putting young people off the idea of starting their own business.

“The perverse part is that they’re making it easier for me and more difficult for start-ups. It’s really difficult for them now. It does not feel like we have a pro-business government.”

His advice for new business owners is to establish key allies, those who can be trusted to run the business when the owner is not around. Then, when the time is right, sell them a 25 per cent equity stake in the business by allowing them to borrow against the business.

 “You’ll get some of your money back,” he says. “It could be a nest egg, another investment. Then you’ve got a business with a bit of debt because the bank gave the money to the company to buy some shares. Then you work your socks off and pay the debt and you’ve got 75 per cent of a debt-free company. By that time the company has grown, so do a trade sale or leverage again and sell 50 per cent this time. You could sell three or four times and still own a chunk of the equity.”

It is with such plans that Howie will eventually exit, but that won’t be for some time yet.

“This isn’t a bunch of legacy businesses,” he says. “They will be able to be passed on to a mix of trade buyers or management.”

The hunger remains for now though, as seen when he talks about Cerberus in which Dupplin Investments has invested.

“It is suitcase TV, you can do real-time streaming from a suitcase via the web. We’re streaming from Premiership training grounds to anywhere in the world using an internet link rather than satellite. It’s a really interesting business.”

When the office lights go out, Mr Howie can be found playing the accordion in The Simon Howie Dance Band, which frequently performs at reel parties such as the Argyle & Sutherland Ball at Stirling Castle and the Caledonian Ball in London; they even takes the occasional wedding gig.

“If you Google me you will get a picture of me playing the accordion,” he says, laughing. “I’m better known for that than anything else.”