GEOFFREY Laird-Portch was the one-time Marks & Spencer trainee who pioneered the mass-marketing of tartan. He opened up new markets in Europe and North America with innovative setts and garment styles, and introduced the mini-kilt to Paris and New York, a generation ahead of Vivienne Westwood.

He dealt in an astonishing array of Highland dress, manufacturing in wool, silk and artificial fibres, and retailing kilt cloth, tartan, finished kilts, jackets, sporrans, brogues, sgian dubhs, flashes, scarves, golf caps, tammies, travel rugs, waistcoats, ties, cummerbunds, sashes, stoles, braces, squares, skirts, shawls and bonnets.

At its height, his East Kilbride-based business rivalled Rolls Royce in numbers of staff. But while Rolls Royce employed men, he took on their womenfolk, and in a move radical for the early 1960s, opened a creche for children of staff.

Laird-Portch was a characterful man, slightly Churchillian in appearance, whose presence and personality made him appear larger than he actually stood. He possessed the courage to take risks and to forge new markets with new products, and was rewarded by being one of the youngest businessman ever to win two Queen's Awards. He sold off the original Laird-Portch company to Coats Patons, restarting as Clan Laird - being promptly re-joined by many of his old staff. The business ceased only when as the result of internal fraud, the receivers were called in.

In Scotland of the 1950s, tartan was becoming old-fashioned and outmoded, although abroad it presented a hallmark of prosperity and good taste. When his marketing consultant suggested a sales mission to Europe based on a Buick handpainted in tartan, Laird-Portch was up for it. By the time the "Yank tank" crossed the Channel, the paint job was reputedly worth more than the car. In the resulting sales, even the Vatican proved a customer.

Geoffrey was adept at judging trends, and though male tartan sales were in steep decline, he guessed correctly that the women's market was ripe for exploitation.

In 1956, he brought in a trade check he called Blue Stewart, the first of many socalled trade tartans. Nine years later, the advent of the miniskirt provided him with opportunity to produce tartans skirts in every size and hue. By 1970, mini-kilts were in European vogue, with thousands every week rolling off the East Kilbride production line.

His moves were not greeted with universal acclaim by the fustier ends of the mainstream tartan movement, despite his knack of catching the colours of the moment.

It says much for his efforts that his plaids are now established fashion setts, and his Bannockbane in blue and brown are officially registered, and enjoying the same league of tartan orthodoxy as Flower of Scotland or Pride of Scotland. His innovation helped to create some kind of firm pattern for orders in a business notoriously at the whim of fashion.

Geoffrey Laird-Portch was born in Greenwich and raised in Leicestershire, where his grandfather, A J Portch, had a textile factory, and educated at Uppingham in Rutland. At 19, he trained in textiles with Marks & Spencer before gaining experience in factory management in South Africa. He returned to the UK early in the 1950s, after the business had relocated from Leicestershire to the Gorbals in Glasgow. The rest became family history - turning the business round, moving to custom-built premises in East Kilbride and concentrating on exports.

In later years he made his home in Elie, Fife, and died there. He was predeceased by his wife, Janet Morton Gray, and is survived by their children, Fiona, Susan, Gillian and Geoffrey Andrew, and their grandchildren.

Geoffrey James Laird-Portch JP, tartan maker and exporter; born April 7, 1932, died January 19, 2006.