In the second of our two-part profile of Tom Scott,

Rosie Allsopp finds out how his empire continues to grow A DIFFERENT person might have settled for making a company ten times more profitable, but not Tom Scott.

When he took over the chair at Guernsey Gas, the company was worth £20m. But by the time it was sold last year, to an Australian investment company, its value was nearer £200m.

He is careful to point out that he was a cog in the machine, not the sole driving force behind its success.

‘Even before we sold it, by taking it public, the worth of the company grew and the investors were satisfied with the investment and could see it expanding in the right direction.’

It was around that time that Mr Scott, along with two friends, was asked to sort out the affairs of a another friend who was dying.

Mr Scott also found he had a detached retina and went to Southampton for treatment.

It was while he was being checked over that he ended up with Channel Television.

That acquisition saw Mr Scott involved with a communications company, something he knew nothing about. He believed the company had lost its way and set about putting it back on track and making it profitable.

‘Again, I’m pleased to say that the chief executive, John Henwood, I found very reliable – a straight and honest person.’

Soon after the takeover, the company received an approach for its TV business. ‘We sold it for close to £17m. and returned that money to shareholders. I got my money back and a profit and still held almost 30% of the shares of a public company which had property and other assets.’

The sale of the assets made the company more than £30m. The cash shell was turned into a company called ComProp, short for commercial property.

ComProp was sold for £51m.

‘The shareholders, who are mainly local people, have done very well. I have as well, but I have worked at it. I have had a big enough investment in it to make me sweat and work hard and concentrate and do a decent job.’

He was asked by shareholders to get involved with Ann Street, which owned the Island Shoppers and Bucktrout. Its assets included pubs and the St Pierre Park, La Trelade and Green Acres hotels. It was another foray into the unknown but he accepted the challenge.

‘They all had one thing in common – they were asset-rich. With assets you can break them up, mix them up and make them work a little bit harder, which suits my kind of thinking.’

An approach came from Le Riche about putting the two together. The idea had been explored many times in the past but the figureheads couldn’t agree on who would be in charge. Mr Scott asked for 12 months to get to understand the business before he made a decision.

When he accepted, his profile became higher still and some of the comments about the amount of acquisitions he had made were not favourable.

‘They are public companies and, at any time, the shareholders think I’m doing the wrong thing, they can vote me out. Living on an island, you have a responsibility to the island and your customers but you have a responsibility to shareholders as well. You have to keep everyone happy.’

He said that, after living in Guernsey for a certain time, he has a fondness for the island.

‘You want to put something back, which I believe I have done.’

Mr Scott has faced criticism for the way he has run his businesses but he insists that he always had local people’s interests at heart.

‘Those companies – Ann Street, Le Riches and Guernsey and Jersey Gas – are all over 100 years old and have always been large employers. In their own way, they have always donated to different events and have given sponsorship.

‘If you come to CI Traders now, we always place local people first, whether it’s the suppliers – we buy a lot of fresh produce locally – or the customers.’

But it was the purchase of Morrisons’ Safeway stores in the Channel Islands in April of last year that really saw his public image take a dive. It meant that in addition to CI Traders’ ownership of the Le Riche stores, Island Shoppers, many pubs and restaurants and Mr Scott’s personal ownership of Jacksons Garage, islanders had to look hard if they wanted to buy food, beer or petrol from someone else.

The news went down particularly badly in Jersey because the deal went through with just hours to spare before the island’s competition law came in.

‘The flak started more in Jersey than Guernsey because the deal was done before the competition law. I don’t know why we got flak – it’s not as if we set about slashing jobs.’

But he is adamant that it was just another business deal and that there was no intention to gain a monopoly.

‘I sent a letter to Ken Morrison saying that if he was going to dispose of his stores, I would be interested.

‘It’s a routine thing that any businessman would do if he has anything about him.’

The two men talked. Mr Morrison was interested in selling and because of family connections in Jersey, knew that speed was of the essence because of the impending law. Mr Scott made an unconditional offer and the rest is history.

Rather than brand the new stores as Checkers, CIT decided they would trade as Safeway in competition with the Checkers stores, even though there was the initial difficulty of finding stock to fill the shelves. Morrisons had sold own-brand goods, which Safeway was initially unable to do.

While the first few months were tough and customers stayed away, resulting in a record number of new shareholders at the Co-op, things are largely back to how they were.

‘We are back on par and I hope things are settling down. We believe that people have accepted it and I believe it’s because there has been no rise in food prices, not because of inflation.

‘People may argue that it’s competition, but I genuinely believe that us doing this has been good for the public.’

He flatly disputes that ‘Tommy tax’ exists, the term some islanders used to describe how they felt when shopping at Safeway or Checkers.

‘There’s a perception that I came in and put tax on everything but I haven’t. I haven’t raised prices. I believe what I’ve done has made things better. I ran the business more profitably and in many cases brought prices down.’