Tom Allison will have a little more time on his hands from tomorrow morning, when he steps down as chief executive of Clydeport and its Glasgow-based parent group Peel Ports.
Speaking in the walnut-panelled reception room in Peel Ports’ Robertson Street headquarters, Allison says: “I’ve been here 10 years; it’s been a fantastic journey. I believe that we have achieved a lot of our objectives from a strategic perspective, and we’re entering a phase where it would be more appropriate for me to become chairman.”
Allison, 59, is staying on as chairman of Peel Ports, as well as a non-executive director of Manchester-based parent group Peel Holdings.
He says this is partly because “I retain an emotional attachment to the company”, and partly because the port group’s two principal shareholders — Peel Holdings and Deutsche Bank’s infrastructure group RREEF — wanted him to, for the sake of continuity in the medium term.
Allison will remain as a non-executive director of Celtic FC, where his counsel is said to be highly valued by chairman Brian Quinn, and as chairman of the Edinburgh-based oil and gas consultancy Wood Mackenzie, which is 30-40% owned by the venture capitalist Candover.
The decision to step down appears to have been fuelled by Allison’s desire to “create space” for a successor with other non-executive roles high on his radar screen. He dismissed suggestions he had been pushed out either by Peel Holdings (which owns 50.1% of Peel Ports) or RREEF (which owns 49.9%).
Allison, who has built Clydeport and the wider Peel Ports group into the UK’s second-largest ports group in his 10 years at the helm, insists he is jumping rather than being pushed: “It was 1,000% my own decision.”
He is also adamant that he remains on good terms with the Manchester-based billionaire John Whittaker, who has a 70% stake in Peel Ports’ privately-owned parent, Peel Holdings.
Allison has been chief executive of Clydeport since he was drafted in to restore the company’s fortunes in 1997. Before that, he held senior management positions with Rank Xerox, Scottish & Newcastle, ADT, CSC Forest Products and Nexfor.
He says the management team that led the post-privatisation buyout of Clydeport had “cultural, attitudinal and behavioural issues” which marred their relationship with the City.
It was a case of acquire or get taken over for Peel Ports
At the time of the sale to Peel, Clydeport was the UK’s fourth-biggest ports business behind Associated British Ports, Mersey Docks and Harbour and Forth Ports. However, it gained access to the Manchester Ship Canal through the 2002 deal and in 2005 paid £780m for Mersey Docks & Harbour — the owner of ports at Liverpool, Heysham, Sheerness and Chatham. “It was a question of we either had to do something or else get consumed,” says Allison.
He appears to support RREEF’s plan to use the Glasgow-based Peel Ports business as the kernel for further consolidation of the European ports sector. But Allison is coy about whether Peel Ports has any intention of adding to this with a £850m-£900m takeover of the Edinburgh-based Forth Ports, the only significant ports operator in the UK that has remained independent.
Allison has also been the driving force behind the Glasgow Harbour project to develop the Clyde waterfront between the SECC and Clyde Tunnel. The £1.2 billion project, a joint venture with Bank of Scotland, involves regenerating the former docks with plans for a casino, shopping centre, 30-storey block of flats and a 10-screen cinema.
The first phase of condominiums have been sold by development partners Cala, Bryant and Park Lane — although some buyers have pulled out for fear the homes were overvalued, prompting legal disputes with the housebuilders. “We are fully committed to Glasgow Harbour,” says Allison. “We are four to five years into a 15-year project.”
As well as its port operations in the Clyde, which include Ardrossan, King George V Dock, Greenock and Hunsterston, Peel Ports operates the ports on the Medway and Mersey, as well as having interests in port terminals in Ireland and Wales. Peel also operates short-sea shipping lines serving Northern Europe, the North Sea and Irish Sea, Britain’s largest port consultancy and the Roadferry logistics business.
A shorter version of this article was published in The Sunday Times on 5 August 2007