Bon Appétit! Old Boys Working in the Food and Drink Industry The 49th Tillotson Lecture: Interviews

From that day on I realised the work place was a place that I wanted to be. I carved out an ambition to become a wine buyer. I studied for wine exams, moved to London, then travelled the world, doing grape harvests in France, Australia and New Zealand and came back to the UK full of confidence. I worked for Booths supermarkets upon my return, then Asda came calling. Justin King, future CEO of Sainsburys, interviewed and hired me. This wine-buying role was one of the most powerful in the UK, when both wine and Asda were going crazy. As Asda sold to Walmart, an interesting experience in itself, I joined the supply base. One of my claims to fame is that I discovered Yellow Tail, selling the very first bottles of this

Little did I know when I embarked on a four-year Masters degree in Aeronautical Engineering at Imperial College London that the closest my career would take me to an aircraft was four years in international roles flying out of Heathrow; but armed with A Levels in Physics, German and Maths I set off for London and moved into halls in South Kensington, logging my most prestigious postcode to date: across the road from the Natural History Museum. A side note on my choice of A Levels: whilst I was certain on Engineering as a career direction (perhaps with a little of Mr Shaw’s influence) which cemented the need to have Maths and Physics, the German was definitely more of a choice of the heart. I’d thoroughly enjoyed the Rheinland trips, and the teaching of Messrs Hiepko and Freem (as well as their advice on how to use the toilets on a moving coach successfully) was something I wasn’t ready to give up after GCSEs. As luck would have it, it came in handy a little more recently too. After four years of what I referred to at the time as ‘mainly Maths, with a side story about aeroplanes’, I decided I wanted to stay in London, and ended up beginning my working life in strategy consulting with a boutique consultancy, Mars & Co. The learning curve was very steep, the hours long, but as an accelerator for my later career in industry, there’s nothing now stalwart to Oddbins and Morrisons. I also sold millions of award-winning bottles to Aldi. Then came the 2008 financial crisis and a journey with my own business, and several iterations of that.

In 2015 I took a career break and I chose to (shock, horror) study for an MBA at the prestigious Henley Business School. I have a much greater respect for education now. Now my fledgling business, Cider Is Wine, uses my extensive wine knowledge and experience, along with the many insights from the MBA, and provides a basis for creating a whole new drinks sector. My days are filled with plate spinning of various sizes and speeds. It is complex, sometimes lonely, but exciting and, in the end, what we make of it. It requires a good deal of self-awareness, something I was definitely not blessed with at School. Bolton School did provide me with standards, confidence and a notion of a wider world. All of these things are terrifically important for a basis of understanding your inner resources, what you might be capable of and what you want to achieve. Because in the end your future is your design and you can achieve many things that you may not believe possible from where you sit right now.

comparable. The engineering degree came in handy; having developed a solid analytical frame of mind and the ability to zoom out to the bigger picture. I experienced projects in beer, telecoms, and lastly in crisps – which brought me to my current employer, PepsiCo. I joined initially as a pricing analyst, then after seven years in various commercial finance roles in the UK I moved into the European business as Commercial Strategy Director (where I earned all the airmiles mentioned earlier visiting offices in Barcelona, Istanbul, Moscow and beyond); and most recently with my wife and our two girls, I relocated to Amsterdam where I’m currently the CFO of North West Europe – and where that German has finally come in handy: Dutch is pretty close, at least on paper. I have a team of 60 people across multiple countries, and in fact very little of what I do is accounting. You do need a strong grasp of finance and accounting concepts, but I have no formal training in that respect. The engineering still helps me, especially when we look at technical investments in our factories; but primarily it’s a business leadership role. Key skills include strategic thinking, an analytical mindset, team leadership (those Patterdale Hall courses ...) and common sense. One of the great things about Fast Moving Consumer Goods as an industry is that it’s a simple business model. We make products that everybody knows, we sell them in places everybody shops, and if we get it right, millions of people buy and love them. The job is always a great talking point, and even when it’s tough, as my boss has reminded me a couple of times during the challenges of Covid-19, where decisions have been tougher than in any of the previous 15 years, crisps and fizzy drinks aren’t something you can lose too much sleep over.

Still, the skills and experiences of Bolton School did massively influence this; probably not the choice of industry, but the prerequisites to becoming a leader of company currently employing 120 staff, producing 100 tons of the product each week and developing a worldwide recognisable brand synonymous with the local area. The Bury Black Pudding Company, now in its 20th year, still uses my family’s black pudding recipe that goes back hundreds of years and which my father produced on a much smaller scale to supply butchers locally and, more importantly, the iconic Bury Market from the 1970s onwards. In fact, what he used to make in a year, we now make in six days! As I was from a very practical family, my good memories of Bolton School revolve around the sporting opportunities, in particular John Taylor (Boys’ Division Staff 1971-2011) and Steve Cook (Boys’ Division Staff 1982-1989). I learnt how teams work best and, as I captained the year team through to the fifth year, I also had the opportunity to develop organisational, communication and motivational skills that I use to this day, both in my business and in my voluntary role as Chairman of the Old Boltonians’ Association Football Club (OBAFC). I am also grateful to Roger Kirk (Class of 1949; Boys’ Division Staff 1958-1992), Harry Jackson (Boys’ Division Staff 1972-1997), Robin Mathieson (Boys’ Division Staff 1958-1994) and Mike Whitmarsh (Boys’ Division Staff 1980-2006) as the skills I learned from them have proved invaluable in my career. The design skills I learned in Woodwork certainly helped with the building, planning and further development of our current product-specific 5,000 square meter factory in Bury, which will become the world’s first SMART black pudding factory as part of our Industry 4.0 incentive. As I have led this modern-day use of data and connectivity of machines I have become part of the funding stream Made Smarter’s advertising campaign, resulting in my face appearing on the backs of local buses and giant 16-storey billboards nationally – very embarrassing, but brilliant for brand awareness!

However, it has not all been plain sailing – during the 2006 bank crisis the company become close to being foreclosed by the bank after we incurred losses of £250,000 within nine months of moving to the new factory and before going national with supply into Tesco. However, with the resilience instilled in me during my time at Bolton School, we managed to navigate through the challenges in order to enjoy the successes of today. Outside work, the navigational skills learnt in Geography have stopped me getting lost in the mountain ultra-running races I now compete in, covering anything between 40 and 105 miles and raising money for Cancer Research. For my latest challenge please see www.justgiving.com/fundraising/richard-morris500. Looking back at the age of 54, I would advise current pupils and recent leavers who are struggling to find their chosen career paths to gain experience in any industry because the skills learned at Bolton School provide a springboard to do anything. The career may well choose you – although the late Roger Kirk may not have agreed!

My favorite teachers were Eric Sharples (Boys’ Division Staff, 1965-1973), who allowed us to create our own plays in The Little Theatre; and Jim (Killer) Dawson (Boys’ Division Staff 1966-1989) who drilled mental arithmetic into our heads which I still use regularly today. Outside of School it was Terry Butterworth (Boys’ Division Staff 1969-1977), sadly, recently deceased, who led memorable trips to Arran, Skye and the Lake District. My old school friends and I still reminisce about those trips and there are lots of stories to tell! I went to Reading University to study Economics thanks to Robin Mathieson (Boys’ Division Staff 1958-1994), another favourite teacher who made Economics fun!. After that, I became a management trainee at RHM Foods which was the start of a lifelong career in the food industry, where my skills and interest developed in sales and marketing. I moved into the confectionery business and eventually became Trade Marketing Director at Terry’s of York where the company philosophy was ‘work hard, play hard’ which, on reflection, very much emulated what I had learned at School. In 1993 I was approached by Chupa Chups (the lollipop company based in Barcelona) to set up and run their UK operation. It was the best job I ever had and was a great combination of hard work and fun! When they asked me to move with my family to Atlanta in 2000 to run their US operation we didn’t hesitate and I think my education at Bolton School influenced that decision. I was on a three-year contract, but, like so many ex-pats we have met here, we never went home! I think the skills most important to do my job are to listen to others and to learn how to delegate. After working with several different confectionery companies in the US I decided to set up my own consultancy business to help European food companies sell their products in America, and again my education gave me the confidence to make that decision. For pupils at Bolton School who are interested in entering the food industry I would say it is a fun environment and would recommend attending one of the many trade shows around the country where they usually have a special day for students to attend when you are able to talk to experienced people in the business. In September I am very much looking forward to attending a three-times Covid-postponed dinner in New York for Bolton School Alumni who live in America.