Ena Baxter.

Businesswoman, painter and cook

Born: August 12, 1924

Died: January 15, 2015.

ENA Baxter, who has died aged 90, described herself as "just a housewife who enjoys cooking" but she helped transform a modest Highland business into one of Scotland's most successful food companies.

Famous throughout the world for its traditional Scottish produce, Baxter's of Speyside owes much of its success to the woman who in the early 1950s created a range of tinned soups which, even now, remain the convenience food of choice for families on a cold winter's day. The cock-a-leekie, Scotch broth and chicken broth you buy on the shelves today are made from the same recipes which Ena Baxter created more than 60 years ago.

Now a multi-million-pound business, Baxter Food Group's diverse range of soups, jams, sauces and chutneys are sold around the world and the brand is synonymous with Scottish quality.

Mrs Baxter was born Ena Robertson in Drumblair House, near Forgue in Aberdeenshire and brought up in neighbouring Huntley. A talented painter, she studied at Gray's School of Art in Aberdeen. However, her ambition to become a professional artist was thwarted by the onset of the Second World War.

After graduating from art school she went to work for the Ministry of Food at Torry Research Station in Aberdeen, experimenting with ways of fish processing including quick freezing, dehydration and canning. The job served as the teenager's introduction to the food business.

After the war, she went to Fochabers to teach art in the local high school and met 32-year-old Gordon Baxter, the managing director of the family food company, at badminton lessons. They married in 1952 and lived in a small cottage beside the factory.

Baxter's was founded by Gordon Baxter's grandfather, George, who borrowed £10 to open a village grocers in Fochabers. His wife, Margaret, made and sold jams in earthenware jars. Their son, William, married Ethel Adam who added soups to the home-made range. In 1929 she invented Baxter's famous Royal Game soup.

Ena then was following an established tradition when she joined Gordon and his brother Ian in the family firm. By now an accomplished cook, she had been making dinner one night and adapting a recipe for chicken gumbo which she had found in an American magazine. She had to look up okra in the dictionary and when she discovered what it was she used green beans instead.

Her husband was delighted with the resultant soup and when he exclaimed "We've got to can this!" Mrs Baxter's life changed forever. Within a short time she had abandoned teaching and installed herself in the factory.

Baxter's sold one million cans of chicken gumbo in the first year. She went on to work tirelessly in the soup kitchen, experimenting with recipes at home then perfecting them at the laboratory in the factory.

In those days it was extremely difficult to source vegetables such as asparagus and artichokes, particularly in north-east Scotland. Undaunted, Ena Baxter grew them in her own vegetable patch at home. One day one of her sons was asked by his teacher what he had eaten for lunch. "I'm not sure," he replied glumly. "I think it was one of mum's experiments."

As Mrs Baxter developed her range of soups, introducing such stalwarts as cock-a-leekie and Scotch broth, the company's success grew. Baxter's boasts no fewer than three Royal Warrants and its soups are stocked in the larders of Windsor and Balmoral Castles.

Still family-owned, the Baxter brand is a household name around the world, exporting to more than 30 countries and with manufacturing plants in Scotland, England, Poland, Canada and Australia.

Along the way, Ena Baxter became the public face of the company, regularly appearing in television adverts promoting her signature soups.

Yet, despite her busy working life, she still found time to enjoy her other great passion of painting. When in 1992 she and her husband stepped back from the day-to-day running of the business, handing the reins over to their daughter Audrey, Ena was able to spend more time in her studio which looked out over her garden.

In November last year her distinguished artistic career was celebrated with a charity exhibition of her paintings at His Majesty's Theatre in Aberdeen.

The Baxter family set up its own charity, the Gordon and Ena Baxter Foundation in 1981 to provide financial support to good causes across the Highlands and in Moray.

The couple were devoted patrons of the National Galleries of Scotland and supporters of Duff House, Banff. Mrs Baxter's art exhibitions at Duff House and in Fochabers raised many thousands of pounds for charity.

In 1994, Aberdeen University awarded her an honorary degree for services to the community and to industry in Scotland. The following year, she accepted a similar honour from Glasgow's Caledonian University.

Gordon Baxter died in 2013 just a few months before the sudden death of their son, Michael, at the age of 50.

Mrs Baxter is survived by her daughter Audrey, son Andrew and seven grand-children.