1960s WORK
0177 Gallahers Tobacco Division
A few months after I joined, Gallahers suddenly lurched from being very old-fashioned to being quite avant-garde -- at least in terms of marketing. All of a sudden the management, or the operational management, of the company was put in hand in the hands of the marketing groups. And these became the most powerful marketing groups I ever worked for.
There were three divisions. As you might expect, Cigarette Division was the biggest and dominated Gallahers’ business. In addition, though, there was also the Cigar Division and the Tobacco Division -- in which I was located. Accordingly, we moved from our isolated position, in a suite of offices across Cannon Street, into the main headquarters. This was quite small, even before the vogue for small HQs. We -- in the Tobacco Division -- were lucky in that we were given offices around the back; which were less prestigious but which were again somewhat secluded - and this helped to develop a spirit within the group. In the group there was still Roland Bligh and myself. Brian Harri had gone by this time, but we had recruited another brand manager alongside me -- Richard Barrett and then a new-brands manager Hugh MacNiven. The group, headed up now by the new general manager – John Elliott, was completed with our shared secretary, and of course Roy Ingram who was our liaison with the tobacco production facilities.
The carcinogenic nature of cigarettes was well known even then, I had scandalised my GP when I went for my medical to join Gallahers; in that I answered the usual question as to whether I smoked by '... no but I'm starting on Monday'. This was true, because that was when I was joining Gallahers and I felt I had to try the product! But all this was forgotten when I worked in the exciting world of Gallahers. Indeed, moving into the new divisional structure, I entered on the just about most fulfilling part of my commercial life. In part this was due to the new general manager, John Elliott, who had also joined this new group. John was undoubtedly the best manager I have ever worked for. He was the fairest and most inspiring. When Richard joined my salary, was £1750 per annum. Shortly after he had joined I got into taxi with John Elliott. On the way to the advertising agency, John leaned over to me and said “I think will be unfair if you're not at the same salary as Richard so I'm increasing your salary to £2,500”! That was just about the largest jump in salary I have ever had come to me -- and the reasoning behind it was why John was such a good manager.
One story about John will, I think, indicate his style of management. He had been general manager of the Northern group of factories in Gallahers. This was a group of factories located, around Manchester, in very old multi-storey buildings which were no longer suitable for cigarette making. As a result Gallahers had to move out from these. The development grant system was such, in those days, that Gallahers had no choice -- in financial terms -- but to move to Northern Ireland. Accordingly these factories had to be shut down, which meant getting rid of several thousand workers. Under John Elliott the terms and conditions of the redundancies were very generous and everyone was very happy. Indeed so well-respected was John Elliott that, even though he had made them all redundant, the workers clubbed together and bought him a television set when the factories finally shut down.
The nub of this story however was that, at one stage during the run down to closure, John called in the shop steward and explained to him that things had been going far too smoothly. The workers, though they there were happy with what was happening, thought that the shop steward was too close to management and wasn't doing his best for them. The answer that John Elliott proposed was that the shop steward should call a strike. Thus shop steward went ranting out of John's office and called the strike unless a list of demands was met -- the demands had been provided by John Elliott (they were not significant demands and could be met easily). John Elliott then seemingly caved in and everything went smoothly again.
From another direction, John frequently used to come down the corridor and sit on my desk, and talk about what was going on. This was very interesting, I learned a lot from him in this way. One day, however, I said to him “John haven't you got work of your own to get on with”. At which point John explained to me “I delegate as much as I can, because the other alternative is you won't have work to keep you busy; and will be bored like me!” It was a good lesson in man management.
The group of us worked very well together, where everyone was somewhat of a character. As I have said John Elliott was the most interesting character of all. He was an old Etonian, and his sons were going to Eton. He pointed out, however, that it was the most egalitarian comprehensive of all -- since there were no intellectual tests to get there. As I pointed out to him, however, there was the little matter of money!
Richard was also an interesting character in a different way. He aspired to same things as John Elliott, and had put his son down for Eton very soon as he was born. He lived in a big old house in Henley. Richard was not uncomfortable in the milieu. Having been at Oxford, in the boat crew, he also rowed for England in the 1960 Olympic Games located in Rome. He was a member of the Henley stewards. I well remember him wondering whether he should take the day of, because he and the other stewards were having a private lunch with Prince Philip! His wife was also well-placed. They had tickets to the royal enclosure at Ascot -- which is a very restricted privilege.
But above all, though, I remember him for an outing he took with Hugh McNiven; the new-brands manager. They were standing on Bank tube station when Hugh nudged Richard in the ribs and said “There is Mary Rand”. She was the famous athlete of the times, and she was down at the other of the platform. Just then she turned around and came running along the platform throwing her arms around Richard's neck and kissing him passionately. It turned out he had been a room mate with Sid Rand, then her husband, at the Olympics!
Hugh MacNiven didn't have quite the same track record, but he was the first Scots nationalist I had met. His wife worked for Schwarzkopf -- the hair colour people. She told a lovely story about them taking over a competitor in the hair colourant market. This competitor had been making inroads because it seemed to be able to bleach women’s hair far more powerfully than any of their own products, which is what customers wanted. Having taken over the Company they found that the reason for this was simply that the strength of bleach, which would normally have caused the head to hurt, was countered by a local anaesthetic in the product. Needless to say, as a reputable company, they had to stop doing this.
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