Businessman and chief executive at Scottish Tourist Board.
Born: November 30, 1944;
Died: February 8, 2019
DEREK Reid, who has died aged 74, was a Scottish entrepreneur who in various capacities spoke on behalf of Scottish industry and brought an individual and enthusiastic business acumen to the service sector especially tourism. He championed Harris Tweed and owned a specialist mill, the Carloway Mill, one of only three in the world approved by the Harris Tweed Authority. In his later years Reid was appointed visiting professor in tourism at Abertay University. His distinguished career in the consumer industry included the reassessing of Scotland’s national brands.
Derek Donald Reid was the son of Robert and Selina Reid and after Inverurie Academy he graduated with an MA from Aberdeen University and then got a diploma at Robert Gordon’s Institute of Technology. In 1968 he joined Cadbury Schweppes as a trainee and worked his way through the ranks to became a director of its tea and food business. In 1986 Cadbury decided to sell the division and Reid and a few colleagues organised a £97m management buy-out and set up Premier Brands and Tea Business. Reid concentrated his efforts principally as managing director of the tea division. It was a risky venture and Reid and his colleagues pledged all their personal assets to finance the project.
It proved highly successful and in 1990 the entire business was sold and Reid returned to Scotland, managed a hotel in Perth and became involved in tourism. He was the CEO of the Scottish Tourist Board from 1994-96 a period of considerable growth when revenues made healthy advances.
Riddell Graham, director at VisitScotland, told The Herald, “He was a great ideas man – he usually had loads of them in one day! He was keen to drive change and innovation within both the Scottish Tourist Board and the wider Scottish tourism industry.”
Reid ensured more funds came from Holyrood and spearheaded far-reaching consumer campaigns in France, Germany and the US.
In 1996 he took on a variety of non-executive posts – notably the Sea Fish Industry Authority, Pitlochry Theatre and Scotland’s Hotels of Distinction. In 2003 he bought and became chief executive of the Carloway Mill. He bought the company from administration because, “I felt drawn to the iconic identity Harris Tweed as a unique and distinctive part of Scotland’s culture.”
It was not an easy business to develop and Reid saved the company in 2016 with a refinancing programme funded with his own money. In 2017 he sold the company to the mill owners in a management buyout.
In 2000 he was appointed visiting professor of tourism at Abertay University and that year founded the Robert Reid Foundation in memory of his late father. Reid wanted to help financially young students who did not have the means to pursue a university education.
Reid spent part of the year in New Zealand where he owned a vineyard. He had wide interests in the arts, golf and cricket and was a member of both Blairgowrie and Royal Perth Golf Clubs. He was an avid angler in the rivers near his Perthshire home once admitting, “I like fishing, although I’m pretty awful at it.”
Reid is survived by his wife Janice who he married in 1977 and their son and daughter.
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