In 1983-4 we were contacted by Homeworthy Furniture Sunderland to discuss doing their National mail order furniture deliveries. I had contacted Homeworthy before and we had done one or two loads of furniture to retail outlets in the past, but they had a largish fleet of their own vehicles.
Andrew Scott was the director of Homeworthy who contacted us and was looking at ways of making the Sunderland plant more efficient. Until that time they had sent their vehicles away with a driver and mate and they had then attempted to deliver the load to houses throughout the UK. Each vehicle was taking on average a week to deliver the load, and Scott, following discussions with all the major mail order companies was impressed by what he had been told and liked our depot system throughout the UK.
It was the most difficult set of negotiations I have ever completed as Scott wanted to know the far end of everything. One problem that came up in the very early days of discussion was that Homeworthy had made an agreement with its workforce that every piece of furniture had to leave their furniture on their vehicles driven by their staff drivers. This was to be resolved by us building at green lane an unloading/loading platform where we could reverse their vehicle into a dock, with our vehicle reversed up to this and the load then could be transhipped under cover.
All Homeworthy furniture was vacuum packed/shrunk wrapped so damage would be kept to a minimum. When Scott took me on a tour of Homeworthy their vacuum packing plant was the largest in Europe, meaning that large wardrobes and chests were vacuum packed in polethine and relatively easy to handle.
Once we had got a price at which we were prepared to carry each item they produced Scott arranged with me to visit our three depots in London, Wellingborough, and Sheffield, and our sub contractor depots at Midsummer Norton and Edinburgh. Finally after he was satisfied and assuring himself that we had the financial clout to undertake the work wanted me to do a presentation to his fellow directors at Green Lane Spennymoor where we presented Buffet Lunch and I explained our companies history and how I felt not only could we improve their service, from that provided with their own vehicles, at a much more efficient price.
Once a contract was signed Scott explained the downside. First was that he was employed directly by Tiny Roland the world famous financier, who owned Lonrho and he had negotiated a management buyout by his fellows directors, who would soon own Homeworthy.
Scott explained that Tiny Rowland had given Scott the task of sorting homeworthy out, and he had come tom the conclusion that there was no long term prospects and it never could be profitable and the best way out was to persuade the directors that they could make a go of it, and persuade them to buy the company, thus letting Lonrho get out with a clean record.
Once Andrew Scott had achieved his object he went back to see Tiny Rowland and see what was to be his next task and was stunned to hear Rowland say that he was, at about 62 too old and was not offering him a further task.
Andrew Scott joined us as a Director, as we felt we lacked experience and he could help us develop I will continue this theme and tell things that happened and how although I admired Scott’s abilities I found him almost impossible to work with.
I wonder if any ex homeworthy drivers who remembered Scott or any of our drivers would share their thoughts and experiences, as I understand he was disliked by Homeworthy staff, and in our case perhaps he didn’t have direct involvement with our drivers, but perhaps they felt the atmosphere between him and me…
Note from Wikipedia on Tiny Rowland
Roland “Tiny” Rowland (27 November 1917 — 25 July 1998) was a British businessman and chairman of the Lonrho conglomerate from 1962 to 1994. He gained fame from a number of high-profile takeover bids, in particular his bid to take control of Harrods
Rowland was recruited to the London and Rhodesian Mining and Land Company, later Lonrho, as chief executive in 1962. Under his leadership, the firm expanded out of its origins in mining and became a conglomerate, dealing in newspapers, hotels, distribution, and textiles, and many other lines of business. During 1973, Rowland’s position was the subject of a High Court case in which eight Lonrho directors sought Rowland’s dismissal, due to both his temperament and to claims he had concealed financial information from the board.[4] Rowland failed in his legal attempt to block the move[5] but was subsequently backed by shareholders and retained his position.[6] British Prime Minister, Edward Heath, referring to the case, criticised the company in the House of Commons and described events there as “the unpleasant and unacceptable face of capitalism”.[7]
In 1983, Rowland took over The Observer newspaper and became its chairman. He also campaigned to gain control of Harrods department store in Knightsbridge, but was defeated by the Egyptian-born tycoon Mohamed Al-Fayed.[8]
A December 1993 Financial Times article revealed that Hemar Enterprises, makers of documentary film The Maltese Double Cross — Lockerbie was owned by Metropole Hotels, controlled by Rowland. The film stated that Libya had no responsibility for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. Shortly after the indictment of Libya in the Pan Am Flight 103 incident, Rowland had sold a percentage of his interests to the Libyan Arab Foreign Investment Company (Lafico), controlled by the Government of Libya. For this reason, Susan and Daniel Cohen, parents of Pan Am Flight 103 victim Theodora Cohen, claimed that Libya had backed the film.[9
Andrew Scott and myself travelled all over the UK during the time we worked together and had to develop a\working relationship but I never would describe him as a friend, knowing that he would gladly stab me in the back if it suited what he would consider business interests. However he was loyal to our company, if you understand but not necessary me or my father. I think the description of Lonrho and tiny Rowland gives a clue to his business ethics.
The most interesting things I enjoyed as to how he described all the different companies he had ‘put right’ for Lonrho.It was amazing from importing Audi cars into countries to spectacle makers.
