Saiccor - The First 50 Years 5.8 MB - Sappi

The First Fifty Years
Norman Wooding (PhD chemistry), then Deputy
Chairman of Courtaulds, became Chairman of Saiccor
on 1 April 1983, having been on the Saiccor Board since
March 1977�
From 1 April 1983 the Board comprised: N S Wooding* (Chairman),
N Boulter*, P L Dell*, M Macdonald, O W Tainton, J L van der Walt,
P J van Rooy, J R Wrangham*� (*British)
Over this period changes to the Board were:
S Huismans appointed November 1983
O W Tainton resigned March 1985
J R Wrangham resigned March 1985
G B Turner appointed March 1985
P L Dell resigned December 1985
N S Wooding resigned December 1985
Significant changes had occurred in Courtaulds that were to have a
strong influence on Saiccor� Sir Arthur Knight had succeeded Lord
Kearton as Chairman of Courtaulds and to a large extent he followed
the same expansionist policies as Kearton� In 1979, at the age of 43,
Christopher Hogg took over from Knight as Chairman� Hogg, after
majoring in English at Oxford, went to the Harvard Business School
and then spent a further year teaching at IMEDE, a business school
in Lausanne�
For the next five years he worked for merchant bankers in the City
of London before joining Courtaulds in 1968 as a director of
International Paints� Hogg’s policy, simply put, was that each business
unit of the Courtaulds conglomerate had to make a profit or close
down� Within 18 months he shed 21 000 jobs, almost a quarter of the
UK workforce� Courtaulds was becoming leaner and meaner, but it
took six years for profits to improve� Hogg was knighted in 1985�
While Tainton was at Saiccor the new policies at Courtaulds did
not filter through to Saiccor� However both Peter Dell and his
successor, Gordon Campbell, saw their own career progression in
Courtaulds, and both were keen to see Saiccor more like Courtaulds�
For instance, in the Tainton era the budgeting process was simple�
Tainton set the production figure, it was not debatable, it was a given�
We made 1 050 t/d in 1982 and Tainton’s figure for 1983 was 1 100 t/d
with no expansion projects�
The Technical Manager forecast the raw material usages, and Tainton
negotiated prices but kept them secret� The accountants determined
R&M and labour costs from the previous years actual inflated by the
CPI, then put the budget together and sent it to the directors� Proposals
for capital expenditure were submitted to the March or October Board
meetings� There was virtually no further discussion on budgets�
102
Dr Norman Wooding,
Chairman of Saiccor
1983–1986
Sir Christopher Hogg