Gerard Eadie has his own distinctive window on the world

country's highest-paid executive, with a salary of more than #500,000.

In fact, the wage-watchers got it wrong and are due Mr Eadie an

apology for whatever embarrassment it may have caused him. The truth,

which I am quite happy to reveal exclusively, is that, far from being

the Half-Million Man, Gerard Eadie actually paid himself a cool #1m last

year!

He confirmed the fact when we met at his plush office in the

headquarters of C.R. Smith, the company which he owns to the extent of

99%.

''It arose because the Government cut back on the capital allowance

for plant and machinery from 100% to 25%,'' he explained. ''We were left

with this money which would have been liable for tax so we paid it to me

-- and into my self-administered pension scheme, from which it could

come back into the company.

''About #250,000 of it went towards a factory unit in Manchester. This

kind of problem didn't arise before so it is just a tax-efficient way of

using the money.''

Mr Eadie would much rather see that kind of money being given as

capital allowance on plant than finding its way into insurance and

property.

His million-pound tag is certainly a far cry from his days as an

apprentice glazier with Fife County Council in the early 1970s, when he

was thinking about starting up on his own.

He took the plunge at the age of 20, then employed an apprentice --

and worried that he would not be able to pay the boy's wages. Fifteen

years later, he employs 1000 people, has a wage bill which runs to #12m

per year and gained prominence when he became the double sponsor of

Rangers and Celtic.

He still pursues his early passion for speed-cycling but the race in

which he proves a constant winner is the business one, making him the

classic entrepreneur of modern times.

In those early days, Gerard Eadie bought his glass from Charles Robert

Smith of Dunfermline, better known as Bert, and when that gent wanted to

back out of business, he sold it to the up-and-coming lad from

Cowdenbeath for #2000. Wisely, the new owner retained the business name

of C.R. Smith.

Behind the deceptive innocence of Gerard Eadie there is an old head on

young shoulders, patently frank in his self-analysis.

''It took me until I was 24,'' he says, ''before I could visualise

where this company could end up. But when I look back now I don't think

I have always been that smart. I have done things which would make

anyone question their ability -- like some of my recruitment.''

Some of his marketing moves also come into question, like his

ill-conceived expansion into England two years ago, when he did a deal

to spread himself across the country through an in-store presence in the

B&Q chain.

''I didn't have the infrastructure to support it,'' says Gerard Eadie

in self-criticism. ''I didn't have the recruitment facilities nor the

management to support it. For some people in the company it was a

culture shock.

''We got our turnover and a reasonable volume of business but at an

unacceptable cost. When the B&Q contract came to an end we pulled out.

You could say it cost me #1m but I regard it as #1m worth of education

-- a pretty expensive education. But I now have knowledge that nobody

else has.''

Using that knowledge, his C.R. Smith company has now moved back into

England on a different footing, starting with the Tyne-Tees area and

resuming the B&Q connection. When that has been shown to succeed, he

will move to other areas of population in England.

In Scotland, where he feels the company is close to the upper limits

of business available, he expects to do #40m of turnover this year. With

a computer system capable of handling #90m, he needs to go where the

people are, while remaining emphatic that the headquarters will always

be in Scotland.

Gerard Eadie has never avoided controversy for the sake of peace. He

had a running feud with marathon-man Dick Douglas, a local Labour MP, in

which he displayed public posters to make his point.

He faced a strike about new working practices which, he alleges,

really became a dispute over trade union recognition, a point on which

he digs in his heels. He claims there was very little support for the

strike and that the ring-leaders have now all gone.

''At one stage I did wonder if this was where it was all going to

end,'' he confesses. ''But I soon overcame that idea. The reason why I

am against trade unions here is that this is a labour-intensive company

which tends to revolve around me communicating with most people on a

personal basis.

''Workforce and management must see themselves as one. If you have to

go through a third party, like a trade union official, it makes you

inefficient. I wouldn't do that in a million years and would rather let

the business go down.''

Far from going down, however, his C.R. Smith double-glazing company

continues to expand. Gerard Eadie has never even contemplated selling

out or going public, even though big temptations have been put in his

way.

Not so long ago, a London investment company offered him #10m in his

hand and a further #25m if he remained with the company for three years.

When he went home to tell his wife, who was already in bed, he added

that he had turned down the offer. She looked out from under the sheets,

said ''I would have been surprised if you had done anything else'' --

and promptly went back to sleep.

Gerard and Rhona Eadie live in a modest #60,000 bungalow in

Cowdenbeath with their three children, Kevin, 9, Colin, 7, and Sarah 2.

His late father was a safety officer in the pits and his two brothers

work for the company, George as finance director and Hugh as

installation director.

Gerard runs a Bentley and a Ferrari, enjoys the luxury of a

chauffeur-valet but cannot imagine any pleasure in lying about on golden

beaches, watching the ebb and flow of a Mediterranean tide.

He is a modern-day character with his own distinctive window on the

world -- double-glazed, as you can imagine.