Alistair Grant

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Sir Matthew Alistair Grant

FRSE (6 March 1937 – 22 January 2001) was a British
businessman.

Life

The grave of Sir Matthew Alistair Grant, Whitekirk churchyard

He was born in

J Lyons & Co, then spent some time in advertising.[1][2]

He then began working in the retail trade in the

Chief Executive of the Argyll Group from 1986 to 1998, including taking over the "Safeway" chain in 1987. He was knighted in the 1992 New Year Honours.[4]

In 1986 the company made an unsuccessful but expensive bid to take over the

Distillers' Company, but were beaten by their rival Guinness PLC. This brought an effective end to the career of Jimmy Gulliver but Grant went on to great success expanding Safeway to the point where it became the third largest retail chain in Scotland. He retired from Safeway and the Argyll Group in 1997 and then became chairman of Scottish & Newcastle 1997–2000.[5]

He served as Governor of the Bank of Scotland from 1998 to 1999 when he was forced to resign due to ill-health.[5][6]

In 1997 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Michael J Baker, Sir John Arbuthnott, John Spence and Neil Hood.[7]

Grant lived in the library wing of Tyninghame House. He died of cancer on 22 January 2001 aged 63.[8] He is buried close to Tyninghame, in Whitekirk churchyard, in the new cemetery north of the church.

Family

In 1963 he married Judith Mary Dent. They had two sons, William and Matthew and one daughter, Victoria.

References

  1. ^ The Telegraph ( newspaper) obituary 24 January 2001
  2. ^ The Guardian (newspaper) obituary 30 January 2001
  3. ^ The Telegraph (newspaper) obituary, 24 January 2001
  4. ^ "No. 52767". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 1991. p. 2.
  5. ^ a b GRANT, Sir (Matthew) Alistair, Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2016 (online edition, Oxford University Press, 2014)
  6. ^ Sir Alistair Grant (obituary), The Telegraph, London, 24 January 2001
  7. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 24 January 2013. Retrieved 29 July 2016.
  8. ^ "Home - The Royal Society of Edinburgh". royalsoced.org.uk. Retrieved 28 February 2018.

External links

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