IAN Steven, the former chair and managing director of Ann Street Brewery, has died at the age of 86.
For more than 30 years the public face of the company, Mr Steven – described by a former colleague as ‘one of life’s real characters’ – steered its transformation from a modest-sized business to a company listed on the London Stock Exchange’s main board, building-up a pub estate in the south of England.
Eamon Fenlon, managing director of Jersey Dairy, who worked with Mr Steven for 15 years from 1990, described him as ‘a great boss, a great mentor and so much more’.
‘He was one of life’s real characters. A legend,’ Mr Fenlon said.
‘It was such a great place to work where you trusted the people you worked for, had pride in what you did, enjoyed your work and the people you worked with.
‘All this was all down to the culture of the business that Ian created and nurtured,’ he added.
Mr Fenlon had no doubt that the appointment of Mr Steven as the company’s leader in 1971 marked the start of its business transformation, as it began to develop pub-estate holdings which grew to more than 100 across the Channel Islands.
Ann Street Brewery also entered the French market, acquiring L’Abeille, France’s leading supplier of private-label soft drinks for the supermarket sector.
During the 1990s, Ann Street began seeking an extension across the English Channel, building up a pub estate in southern England. In 2000 the company bought the Blubeckers restaurant chain.
But it was Mr Steven’s highly individual style alongside his business acumen which Mr Fenlon recalled from his first day working for Ann Street Brewery, when he was invited with his boss to a meeting at a bank to negotiate long-term funding for their excursion into the French market.
‘There were many bankers and lawyers in the room who were all full of glee at the prospect of huge fees they could earn from this,’ Mr Fenlon remembered. ‘Ian was having none of this and slammed his glasses on the table (breaking them) and said “a pound of blood for a pound of flesh and you can all **** off”. And up we got and walked out into a taxi back to the brewery.
‘In the taxi, the conversation quickly turned to bees, which was a big hobby of his.
‘By the end of the week he had done the deal he wanted for the finance with Midland Bank and also switched our Channel Islands day-to-day banking to Midland, making a huge annual cost saving in the process.
‘I can still see the faces of all of these around the table when they suddenly realised that their opportunity of earning fees had suddenly gone. A great lesson,’ he said.
Mr Steven, who died on 1 October at Clifton Care Home, was predeceased by his wife Soula and son Peter, but leaves four surviving children – Antonia, Nicholas, Marina and Alethea – to whom the JEP extends its sympathy.
A full obituary will follow.
