Bob Johnson (butcher)

Robert Alan Johnson (24 September 1940 – 10 August 2001) was a British butcher and businessman in the meat industry. He was chairman of Farepak.

Early and private life

Johnson was born in St Giles's Hospital in Camberwell, England, United Kingdom, the youngest child and only son of Bert Johnson and his wife Lily (née Good). His father worked as a clerk at a meat depot. He and his mother were evacuated to Torbay during the Blitz. His father stayed in London to work, and his parents later separated and were divorced in 1948.

Johnson was educated in

Roman Catholicism aged 12, and studied at a Catholic boarding school, St Mary's, at Clyst St Mary in Devon. He married Bruna Gilodi, a native of Italy

, in 1971. They have two children, Nicholas and Chiara.

Business career

Johnson left school aged 18 with no formal qualifications, and went to work in Rooksby's butcher's shops in

poverty, chastity, and obedience

.

Johnson returned to John Manson Ltd in 1966, becoming a trainee meat buyer at

Farepak hamper business, which operated through local agents offering hampers through a Christmas saving club. The company was able to secure an increasing market share due to the decline of the high street butchers that offers a similar service. The butchers were facing stiff competition for their regular trade from the expanding supermarkets, but the supermarkets did not enter the hamper business. The Farepak operations moved to Swindon

in 1979.

Johnson became managing director of Mansons in 1980. He wanted the company to move away from high street butchery and to concentrate on selling mail order hampers, but his father and the other directors did not agree. The dispute was resolved in 1984 by Farepak demerging from Mansons. Johnson left with the demerged Farepak and grew the business rapidly, but the rump of Manson's butcher's business stagnated under Knapman's control.

Farepak expanded its

listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1993, with an annual turnover exceeding £30 million. Farepak acquired Kleeneze

in 1995, adding door-to-door sales of household cleaning products to the mail-order hamper business. Farepak was renamed as Kleeneze plc in 1999. By 2001, the group had an annual turnover of over £200 million with a market capitalisation exceeding £85 million. Johnson and his family continued to hold over half of its shares.

Philanthropy

In later life, Johnson spent time on philanthric activities. He funded expeditions to

forced migration. Johnson was also a member of the Worshipful Company of Butchers, and a freeman of the City of London

.

Johnson became a director of (and investor in)

heart attack on 10 August 2001, while on holiday at Olbia in Sardinia

. He was survived by his wife and two children.

References

David Goodhart, "Johnson, Robert Alan [Bob] (1940–2001)",
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn, Oxford University Press, Jan 2005; online edn, Jan 2009 accessed 30 Jan 2009

Obituaries: