Brian Pack OBE
Rare abilities of communication skills and business acumen plus engaging personality
“Few people had such a wealth of knowledge about the industry and such a firm grasp of often complex issues”
Brian Pack, farming business leader and prime communicator.
‘All I ever wanted to do was milk cows’ was one of Brian Pack’s simple but effective comments that helped this agricultural visionary to communicate with the many practical farmers to whom he spoke.
For the past four decades, almost every farming organisation putting together a top flight conference had Brian as a keynote speaker knowing that he could cut through the mumbo jumbo of agricultural policies and provide an easily understood version of what they meant to the man with mud on his boots.
Recognising this rare ability in a tribute following his recent death, former Scottish Government rural affairs secretary Richard Loch head MSP described Brian as a “one-off colossus in the Scottish agribusiness and rural sector”
“Few people had such a wealth of knowledge about the industry and such a firm grasp of often complex issues.”
Lochhead’s faith in Brian’s ability was such that in 2008, he commissioned him to prepare a report on future agricultural policy. While this influential work was well received and largely taken up a subsequent Scottish Government commission into reducing red tape in farming from Brian did not, much to his frustration, gain much traction.
These works followed his retirement after more than a decade as chief executive of leading farmer’s co-operative, Aberdeen and Northern Marts, now ANM Group.
It was in this post that he emerged as a major figure and leader in the industry. The hub of the company, the Thainstone Centre had just been opened. He bravely completed a controversial rationalisation programme that saw the closure of a number of smaller country marts.
He steered the company through the crises of both BSE and foot-and-mouth disease both of which badly affected trading conditions in the livestock sector. In his period in charge, he also oversaw the expansion of the ANM meat processing businesses. This included the acquisition of a major plant in Sheffield. In a sector where small margins are normal, throughout the years he was at the helm, he maintained profitability for the company as well as building up a healthy balance sheet.
Brian’s high reputation in the farming community did not solely stem from his management of ANM. In the early 1970s he took the Farm Business Organisation and Management course at the North of College of Agriculture which is now part of SRUC.
He then joined the staff at the college, initially as an investigating officer and then as an agricultural economist, where his communication skills, engaging personality and business acumen made him a highly popular and effective lecturer and adviser.
He took a year off in 1974/75 to study for a Masters in Agriculturalmanagement at reading University and it was there that he developed an agricultural calculator which transformed the financial management of farms at a time when the industry was facing difficult times.
Along with the late Maitland Mackie, he managed and became a partner in Farmdata, a company providing computerised financial services to farmers.
For many years, he ran a week-long course at Douneside House, Tarland, to teach financial management, which was supported initially by the Clydesdale. These courses became a must not just for farmers but also for bankers, accountants and other working within the agricultural industry.
When the North East of Scotland suffered a series of adverse harvests in the 1980s, many farmers would quietly thank Brian for his sage advice on monetary matters; advice transferred with his own pawky sense of humour.
Brian’s link with the Mackie family at Westerton, Rothienorman strengthened in 1982 when he left the college in order to manage Mackie’s Dairies, then a large-scale farming enterprise and milk processing and household milk delivery business.
Before he departed to ANM, he was credited with coming up with the idea for icecream manufacture;averysuccessful venture which has grown into becoming a major national supplierofthepopulardessert. 2 Hugely successful as chief executive of farmers’ co-operative ANM His services to the industry were first recognised in 1999 with an OBE. Then, in retirement, he was awarded an honorary directorate from Aberdeen University in 2017 as a former member of the University Court and former governor of the Rowett Institute which is now part of the university.
He was also a recipient of the Royal Northern Agricultural Society Award for outstanding services to agriculture and the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland’s Lifetime Achievement award.
While his working life was all carried out in the North East of Scotland, his earlier family life had been in the West. A family move to Balloch at the age of nine sparked his life-long love of farming after he started to help with the milking of cows on a nearby dairy farm.
This was where he formed his youthful ambition of spending his life at the tail end of a cow but a rare problem with a leg resulted in long periods off school and in hospital. This loss of mobility dogged him all his life and ruled out a career in active farming. Although his ailment did have a silver lining as it was in hospital that he met Pam, his future wife who has survived him. Their long and happy union produced David and Alan and more recently three grandchildren.
Before heading to the North of Scotland and his life’s work, he gained a National Diploma in Agriculture at the old West of Scotland College of Agriculture at Auchincruive, Ayr,
Unfortunately, Brian did not enjoy the best of health in his retirement. Three years ago, he underwent a major operation in Edinburgh from which he never fully recovered.
His funeral will be on Wednesday, February 5, in St Andrews Parish Church, Inverurie, at 11.00am followed by interment atdaviot church and hospitality at Thainstone Centre.