My friend Phillip Lowe, who has died aged 76, believed passionately in the importance of manufacturing in Britain. As managing director and then chairman of Yorkshire Chemicals (1984–96), he both increased sales of its highly specialised dyestuffs and profits from them, and took a progressive view of the desirability of empowering the workforce.
Blue-collar and white-collar employment conditions were harmonised at the firm. Clocking-on – registering arrival times with cards in machines – was abolished, profit-sharing and share option schemes were introduced, pension provisions were made equal and free private medical insurance was introduced for all. These measures, together with substantial investment in new plant, stimulated the company’s growth, with more than 90% of sales made outside the UK.
Born in Oldham, Lancashire, Phillip was one of the six children of Dorothy (nee Townsend) and Harry Lowe. His father was a mule stringer, whose arduous work involved tending to the machines known as mules in a cotton mill, and Phillip would sometimes act as his helper. He and his siblings benefited greatly from the provisions of the postwar welfare state. Phillip was educated at Chadderton grammar school and at Leeds University, graduating in 1961. He then taught in secondary and further education before joining the Textile Council in Manchester.
In 1969 he co-authored a study of the future of the British cotton and allied textiles industry for the government. He became chief economist of the textiles and garments group Carrington Viyella in 1973, and later entered its general management.
Phillip joined the board of Yorkshire Chemicals as commercial director in 1981. I first met him when I became his personal assistant after he was appointed managing director. Phillip was a fair, hardworking and competent businessman and I enjoyed working alongside him during a period of immense change at the company. He was appointed OBE in 1997 for services to the UK chemical industry.
Phillip married Patricia Booth in 1962, and they had two children, Anne Marie and Andrew. Following Patricia’s death from cancer, Phillip married Margaret Nightingale, in 1996.
In 2006, Phillip and Margaret moved from Hillam, in North Yorkshire, to Anglesey. There, Phillip was involved in community life, chauffeuring members of the WRVS to the lunch club in Beaumaris, and visiting two local care homes once a month to sing with the residents. He was also an active member of his village church. In 2015, he and Margaret moved back to North Yorkshire, to the Hollins Hall retirement village, in Hampsthwaite.
He is survived by Margaret, Anne Marie and Andrew, and by four grandchildren.
