Sir Simon Hornby, 75, Chief of high street retailers WH Smith, his family's firm, chairman of Royal Horticultural Society
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Published Date: 22 July 2010
By ALASDAIR STEVEN
http://news.scotsman.com/obituaries/Obituary-Sir-Simon-Hornby.6433162.jp
Chief of WH Smith, his family's firm, and chairman of Royal
Horticultural Society
Born: 29 December, 1934, in Oxfordshire.
Died: 17 July, 2010, in Oxfordshire, aged 75.
He was the third generation of the original founding family to preside
over the high street retailers, WH Smith. From 1982 to 1994 Sir Simon
Hornby tried to change the central focus of the traditional business
away from concentrating on being a newsagent and stationery shop and
branch out into new areas.
Some of these ventures proved successful, building on the
long-established core business, but some proved a handicap on the
group's growth, and sapped the cash flow.
Hornby's ambition was to make Smiths a market leader and profits rose
steadily throughout his early years in charge. He demonstrated a
willingness to accept new practices when he installed new
technologically advanced cash tills and accountancy systems.
During his time at the head of WH Smith, Hornby set in motion talks with
John Menzies. Although the takeover was not completed until 1998, Smiths
immediately gained a major foothold in the Scottish retail business with
important outlets throughout Scotland - especially on high streets and
at railway stations. Many Menzies stores were expanded considerably -
notably the one on Edinburgh's Princes Street - and the merger soon
proved a benefit to both companies.
Simon Hornby was the grandson of one of the founders of the company. He
attended Eton, did his national service in the Grenadier Guards and read
law at New College, Oxford. He joined Smiths as a management trainee in
1958 and worked his way up through the various departments.
By 1974 he was retail director, rising again to the group's chief
executive in 1977. He held that post until he became chairman in 1982.
WH Smith was a well known name in business but investors were inclined
to label it as a "mature business". There had been little expansion for
some years and institutional investors had reservations about ploughing
money into the company as there were two classes of equity shares. The
ordinary were principally owned by the Smith family and Hornby while the
B shares (non-voting) were available to the general public. In truth
Hornby was one of the moving spirits to change this out-of-date practise
but it took some years to gain the family's agreement.
A successful takeover was that of Our Price in 1986 - despite worries
that the two businesses were too similar - making Smiths the largest
record retailer in the UK.
But the subsequent series of deals, selling part of the equity to Sir
Richard Branson's Virgin Records, proved a cumbersome financial
distraction. The joint venture with the DIY chain Do It All was less
than successful, as was the acquisition of Waterstone's, the more
upmarket book shop.
The expected commercial synergy never quite worked out with Waterstone's
and within a year Hornby decided to sell the business to EMI.
Under his hands-on management Smiths rapidly built up a strong market
share in the growth industries long associated with the company. Books,
magazines and records all recorded good sales and Hornby spearheaded an
expansion abroad, especially in America. The company was one of the few
UK retailers that traded successfully overseas.
Hornby insisted that Smiths devote much attention to the design of its
stores, products and printed material: he wanted to shed its rather
dowdy and traditional image and be a major player throughout the UK.
Hornby was particularly keen to maximise the selling potential around
Christmas time - the group's most profitable period - and oversaw the
more colourful presentation and displays in the stores. His concern for
design was acknowledged when he was appointed chairman of the design
council.
Hornby also had a passion for gardening. His house in Wantage,
Oxfordshire was always full of home-grown plants and flowers - many rare
species which he had personally nurtured.
From 1994 to 2001 he was an enthusiastic chairman of the Royal
Horticultural Society and supported the considerable redevelopment of
the Vincent Square offices in Westminster and the creation of its new
library.
He regularly attended horticultural events around the country and was
particularly fond of the Chelsea Flower Show.
Hornby, who was knighted in 1988, had hunted in his youth and served on
boards of the British Museum, National Trust, the Victoria and Albert
Museum and the Terrence Higgins Trust.
He had to curtail many of these activities in later years when
Parkinson's Disease was diagnosed. However, that did not stop his love
of his garden, which he buzzed around in a buggy, checking on the plants.
He is survived by Sheran Cazalet, who he married in 1968. The couple had
no children.
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Celebrated chairman of WH Smith, the RHS and the Design Council
Martin Adeney
guardian.co.uk, Monday 26 July 2010 18.36 BST
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jul/26/sir-simon-hornby-obituary
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2010/7/26/1280165754168/hornby-006.jpg
Hornby understood the retail market.
As a book-lover, aesthete and creator of celebrated gardens, Sir Simon
Hornby, who has died aged 75, was fortunate to indulge his passions at
the highest levels: as the last family member to chair WH Smith (which
in its heyday controlled 30% of the UK's book market), as chairman of
the Design Council and, for seven years, as president of the Royal
Horticultural Society.
Educated at Eton and New College, Oxford, with national service in the
Grenadier Guards, he had a patrician manner, but it was leavened by his
acceptance that he was born "with a silver spoon in his mouth" and a
stock of rhymes to which friends were treated on a variety of occasions.
Hornby was born in London into a WH Smith family. His grandfather had
been made a business partner by a rowing friend, Freddy Smith, Viscount
Hambleden; his father, Michael, had been a vice-chairman. The Hornbys'
hold on the business was strengthened by their holdings of B shares,
which had more voting rights than A shares. His mother, Nicolette Joan
Ward, was an enthusiastic gardener and, as a boy, Simon enjoyed working
with his parents on their garden at Pusey House in Oxfordshire, designed
by Geoffrey Jellicoe.
After Oxford he joined the family business, learning the trade first as
a stationery buyer in Sheffield and then progressing smoothly to retail
director in 1974, retail managing director in 1977, chief executive in
1978 and chairman in 1982.
In his 12-year chairmanship, working closely together with his chief
executive, Malcolm Field, he transformed a collection of rather
disparate Smith's stores into a clearly branded and essential
destination in any high street, with huge shares of the newspaper and
magazine markets: 40% of all stationery sales and 30% of all UK book
sales. Results improved through the 1980s and the company joined the
FTSE 100
Hornby was a firm ally of the Publishers' Association in maintaining the
net book agreement, which kept book prices fixed. When it ended in 1997,
it led to wholesale price reductions and the devastating entry of
supermarkets into bookselling alongside almost every other of Smith's
traditional lines.
Hornby was recognised by his colleagues as having a shrewd understanding
of the retail market. Staff at Smith's and, later, the RHS found him
very clear about what he wanted, but prepared to listen to, and not
resent, contrary views.
Smith's power in the high street brought criticism, not least from
Private Eye, which the company refused to stock for fear of being joined
in libel suits alongside the Eye. The nickname devised by the magazine,
WH Smug, stuck. But for the book trade, winning the Smith's order was
key and although there was some resentment over the discounts it exacted
– more than 50% in some cases – publishers queued up to present their
manuscripts at the company's Swindon headquarters.
A book enthusiast who supported initiatives such as the Book Trust and
the National Literacy Trust, Hornby was disappointed in his privately
expressed aspiration of raising the standard of books in his shops, but
seized the opportunity to buy Waterstones in 1989 and expanded it from
19 to 120 stores.
His target was market leadership in every sector in which Smith's
operated, but the strategy of expansion into new areas met with mixed
success. While Smith's established itself as the biggest music retailer
outside London with the purchase of Our Price, its expansion in the DIY
business, establishing the Do It All chain with Boots, though
profitable, was late and badly lagged behind B&Q and HomeBase. He was
delighted with the purchase of Paperchase, the stationer, in 1986, but
its development stalled.
Hornby was particularly interested in design, and with his mantra "good
design brings real commercial advantage" he encouraged consistency and
championed young designers. In 1987, the group established the WH Smith
Illustration awards alongside the existing annual literary award.
An obvious candidate for the chairmanship of the Design Council in 1986,
he got into trouble for his forthrightness when, interviewed by Vogue,
he described the council as "faceless", its headquarters as "a
second-rate souvenir shop" and its magazine as "impossible to read". He
had to apologise, but, over six years, pushed through his changes.
Similarly he stepped into controversy when he took over in 1994 as
president of the RHS. His credentials were impeccable. After Pusey
House, he had moved into an old rectory nearby and established a new
garden. Then, in 1992 he moved to the Ham at Wantage, Oxfordshire, where
he created another new garden in its 50 acres. He wrote the Tatler's
gardening column in the mid-1980s.
But his determination to make Wisley more of a centre for the society,
and to move its Lindley library out of Vincent Square, in London, met
huge opposition and nearly split the Society. In the event, only some of
the library was moved. It was to Hornby's credit that he was able to
restore good relations for the rest of his seven-year term. He backed
moves to broaden the RHS's excessive south-east focus by merging with
the Northern Horticultural Society and, while respected as a plantsman,
his interest in the design of gardens – not only their plants – was
reflected in changes at both Wisley and Chelsea.
Knighted in 1988, he held a string of appointments including
directorships of Pearson, the publishers, and Lloyds Bank, and
trusteeships and council appointments at the British Museum, the V&A and
the National Trust.
In 1968, he married Sheran Cazalet, whose father was the Queen Mother's
racehorse trainer. In recent years, he suffered from Parkinson's disease
and failing eyesight.
He is survived by his wife.
• Simon Michael Hornby, businessman, born 29 December 1934; died 18 July
2010