Ian Galloway CBE, one of the towering figures of Scottish agriculture, has died after a short illness. He was 75.
Mr Galloway was chairman of Scotbeef at Bridge of Allan and spent his entire career in the red meat business.
He transformed the family-owned business from a Glasgow-based retail butchers with branches throughout the city into the UK’s biggest single plant meat processor with a strong international profile.
He was awarded the CBE in 2001 for services to the Scottish meat industry and was bestowed with other honours and lifetime achievement awards in recent years.
Yesterday the Meat Wholesalers Association president Alan McNaughton described him as “fiercely independent” in the face of competition from many large, international groups.
He added: “Ian was always an innovator, pioneering product traceability, long before it became fashionable, while also being one of the first to develop strong and direct processor-retailer links.
“He was also a strong and valued leader in the Scottish industry’s determination to fight back to the top of the meat sector from the challenge of BSE and foot-and-mouth. He has left a great business and personal legacy and will be sorely missed by us all.”
The modern high-capacity Scotbeef plant at Bridge of Allan and the cutting and packing plant at Queenslie were largely designed by Mr Galloway and his latest project involved the setting up of Scotbeef Inverurie with plans for a new abattoir at Thainstone.