One’s bust! Firm run by Charles’s small business guru goes to the wall
(…and yes, it owes money to, er, small businesses!)
AS a friend and adviser to Prince Charles, he was entrusted to carry out a task close to the heart of the heir to the throne.
David Whiteford was appointed to help promote small businesses in Scotland.
Charles set up the North Highland Initiative (NHI) after spending time in Caithness at the Castle of Mey – the beloved home of the late Queen Mother.
But Mr Whiteford’s role in the scheme has now been called into question after another company run by the 63-year-old went bust owing £2 million.
Many of the firms owed money from the collapse of Mr Whiteford’s firm are small, family-run businesses similar to those the NHI was set up to help.
More than 100 individuals and companies – including cheesemongers, distillers, brewers, dairies and bakers – now face having to write off thousands of pounds after Mr Whiteford’s company was placed into administration.
Last night, one local businessman said: ‘The irony is that the NHI is trying to support regional and far-flung farming communities around Caithness and Sutherland, promoting a brand to give them a broader market share.
‘David Whiteford is one of those tasked with running it – but it seems he isn’t able
‘We struggled from day one, they were slow payers’
to run his own establishment for profit.’ Mr Whiteford, a farmer until 2017, was appointed an OBE in 2000 for services to agriculture and in 2008 became an associate of the Royal Agricultural Society.
But he is best known as the chairman of the NHI, which was set up by Charles – known as the Duke of Rothesay when he is in Scotland – in August 2005.
It works to help small and local producers improve access to markets and to advertising.
The charity operates across Caithness, Sutherland and Rossshire, focusing on food, farming, tourism and community support.
Mr Whiteford has been a director since 2010, when he was pictured with Prince Charles at a farmers’ market near Inverness.
Mr Whiteford has also been involved in other businesses, including a role as director of the
Food & Drink Hub, a wholesale business supplying Scottish produce to shops across the country.
It was forced into administration at the end of last year. A list of creditors published last month by Companies House showed 121 people and businesses are owed money, totalling £2,031,028.
Last night, Niall Macalister Hall from Beinn an Tuirc Distillers in Kintyre, Argyll, said: ‘We struggled from day one, they were slow payers. Our debt of £12,000 plus VAT seemed fairly small compared to some I spoke to.
‘That for us is half an employee’s wage a year and we’ve only got a few employees so it’s a
HIT: significant part of the turnover. We have to write that off because, let’s face it, we’re not going to get it. It’s had an impact on us as a small producer, it’s not great.’
He added: ‘I can only assume it’s down to mismanagement.
‘I cannot for any other reason understand how the business failed even during a pandemic, given other businesses in that field were doing very well.’
Argo’s Bakery on Orkney claims to have lost more than £14,000 – more than £10,000 is listed on official documents by administrators. The firm’s Jenna McDill said: ‘The situation with the Food & Drink Hub has depleted our confidence in seeking these larger markets and has meant our brand has been withdrawn unexpectedly from retail outlets throughout Scotland.
‘After working exceptionally hard to make the most of any opportunity given to us this was a devastating blow to us personally before Christmas.’
Callum Macinnes, owner of the Island Smokery cheese producer on Orkney, said his family-run company lost £17,000 – with no explanation given.
He said: ‘It’s a lot of money for a small company.
‘It’s a bitter pill to swallow when you’ve been promised the earth and you’ve supported them through thick and thin.
‘I don’t understand – the food and drink businesses have done quite well and they were predominately selling a lot of alcohol, which was in boom times. It doesn’t ring right, why have they failed when everyone else is making hay?’
Last night, Mr Whiteford said he worked pro bono as chairman of the NHI, adding: ‘I understand what people are saying but the NHI and the Food & Drink Hub are two different things.
‘We will always support the NHI, small businesses or larger ones that want to support and grow the economy and that is what the Food & Drink Hub was trying to do.
‘I just didn’t know the effect the pandemic was going to have.
‘I’ve never not answered a call, I’ve never shirked away from anybody, I want to hold my head up in the community in future. I am as sad as anybody about this and acutely aware of their pain.’
Mr Whiteford said the business lost a ‘significant amount’ overnight when food services shut down and retailers cut back on products which were ‘niche and quality’ in favour of staple items.
‘It’s a lot of money for a small firm to lose’
FORMER girlfriends of the prime suspect in the murder of Suzy Lamplugh are still under police protection, more than three decades after he was jailed for other crimes, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Convicted rapist and killer John Cannan, who investigators named as the only suspect for the unsolved murder of the estate agent, will be eligible for parole next year.
He is currently serving three life terms for the 1987 murder of factory manager Shirley Banks in Bristol, the attempted kidnapping a night earlier of Julia Holman and the rape of a woman the previous year.
But terrified ex-partners who helped put Cannan away want him kept behind bars indefinitely amid fears he will hunt them down in revenge if he is released.
Ms Lamplugh, 25, vanished in July 1986, just days after Cannan was released from a bail hostel next to Wormwood Scrubs prison – four miles from where she was last seen in Fulham, West London. He had spent five years behind bars after raping a shop worker at knifepoint and threatening to stab her two-year-old son.
‘Thinking what he may do keeps me awake at night’
One of his former girlfriends – herself a victim of a sex attack by Cannan – revealed he had called her up out of the blue around the time that Suzy vanished. ‘I was shocked to the core,’ she said. ‘In the five years while he had been in prison I had changed my name, got married, found a new job and moved to a different part of the country.
‘He asked to see me. He said, “I’ve changed while I was in prison. I’m a new man. I’ve been out three months and I’m going straight”. I refused to see him.
‘I immediately called the police and they told me, “He’s not been out three months, he’s been out three days”. I’ve no idea how he found me, and so quickly.’
The woman said police had installed a panic alarm in her home, adding: ‘I’m really scared to think he is so close to being released again. He is still capable of inflicting terrible damage. The thought of what he might do keeps me awake at night.’
Fears over Cannan’s release come as a TV documentary tonight revisits the case of Ms Lamplugh. Her body has never been found, but she was declared dead in 1993.
Detectives believe Cannan, now 67, killed Ms Lamplugh but prosecutors say there is insufficient evidence to charge him, Officers who reinvestigated the case in the early 2000s concluded Cannan may have tried to woo her, then murdered her when she rejected his advances.
Ms Lamplugh was meeting a client called Mr Kipper on the day she disappeared. Police discovered that Cannan was nicknamed ‘Kipper’ by residents at his bail hostel because of his fondness for wearing 1960sstyle kipper ties and habit of sleeping frequently during the day.
Retired Met detective Jim Dickie, who led the second police probe into Suzy’s case, said: ‘Any woman who rejects him, he responds in a really violent and threatening way so there is a real issue about seeking revenge on his ex-girlfriends, partners and even his victims.’