James Gerald Gulliver (17 August 1930 – 12 September 1996) was the founder of Argyll Foods, one of the United Kingdom's largest retail businesses.
He was born in Campbeltown, Scotland, the son of successful grocer[1] William Frederick Gulliver and Mary (née Lafferty).[2][3][4] He was educated at Campbeltown Grammar School then studied at University of Glasgow and Georgia Institute of Technology. Gulliver served for three years in the Royal Navy before joining Urwick Orr & Partners, management consultants.[5] In 1965 he joined Fine Fare where he became chairman within two years.[5]
In 1977, together with Alistair Grant, a marketing specialist who he had worked with at Fine Fare, and David Webster, a merchant banker, he founded James Gulliver Associates. In September 1978, he bought the meat company belonging to Manchester United chairman Louis Edwards for £100,000 plus shares and renamed it Argyll Foods, acquiring numerous retail concerns including 130 Safeway outlets.[5] Within 10 years of the purchase, the company was worth £1.7 billion. Gulliver also bought 100,000 of Edwards' shares in Manchester United for £250,000 and was given a seat on the club's board of directors (although fellow director and former manager Matt Busby abstained from the vote to give Gulliver a seat, saying he did not know who Gulliver was).[6] Gulliver later became the club's vice-president. He sold his stake in 1986, but retained two seats in the directors' box at the club's Old Trafford ground.[7] He was also the vice-chairman of Heart of Midlothian.[8]
In 1985, he tried unsuccessfully to acquire Distillers but lost the bidding to Guinness. He retired from the business later that year.[5]
In 1990, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Hugh Sutherland, Ronald Roberts, Sir Kenneth Alexander and Sir Monty Finniston.[4]
He was awarded the CVO in 1995 for his services to the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme.[8]
He was married four times: to Margaret Joan Cormack (1958), Joanne Simms (1977), Marjorie H. Moncrieff (1985) and lastly Melanie Crossley (1993).[4] He had five children with his first wife.
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