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was being thrown away was actually damn good. The odds were stacked against us, with nine out of 10 new product launches ending in failure, but we had a great product that consumers loved and from the outset the product flew. Setting up the company was just too good an offer to turn down. The name came from my father. He suggested Innis & Gunn — my brother, Neil, and my middle names. Both of us are involved in the business. “I’m very proud of what I’ve achieved in my career and excited about what is still in store for Innis & Gunn. However it’s not all about me, it’s about everyone who works here. I believe in surrounding yourself with people who are as good, if not better, than you so they motivate and encourage you. I’m also quite impatient: whenever innovation comes to the business in the form of an idea, I want it to happen there and then but there’s a process to everything and we have to be methodical and attentive to get each product right. We produce interesting, complex beers that are full of character, travel the world to find the next taste experience for our beers and never rest on our laurels when it comes to flavour innovation. “As a family run business it’s difficult not to take work home with me. I’m always thinking about the business, the next product or market. But as a father of two young children who are changing so quickly, it is important to me that I play a big role in their early development. That’s why we shut the office at 2.30pm on a Friday.”


MICHAEL LAING OBE DL - Owner and Managing Director – LAING the Jeweller, Scotland’s oldest family jeweller. He is also Managing Director for PARKHOUSE the Jeweller in Southampton and Cardiff. “LAING the Jeweller has been specialising in diamonds and the best International watch brands since 1840, when my great- great- great ancestor James Rankin Laing, a brilliant watch and clockmaker, set up business formally with the support of the Duke of Hamilton. From the late 1800s until 1900 we manufactured jewellery for other retailers and were official watch suppliers to the Admiralty. By the end of the 19th Century our business was focused on retailing. In 1995 we bought the largest jewellery store on the South Coast of England, PARKHOUSE in Southampton, a family business even older than LAING the Jeweller, and established in 1794. We opened our second PARKHOUSE store in Cardiff in 1999. We have always been up to the minute in design and technology and kept relevant to every era which is why we have survived. “My son, Richard, has been in the trade for the last four years and is now a Director and the 6th generation of our family to run the business. He has a real passion for our products and has already developed a large clientele in his own right. I think he will agree that having the family’s name above the door makes the business more personal to you. If anyone receives service which is less than impressive, it is totally unacceptable to me. Unlike most large


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