Todd & Duncan sees reshuffle at the top as McGrattan retires

Deputy managing director Iain Cormack will replace Ian McGrattan on his retirement at the end of this month. Cormack, an accountant by training, has been with Todd & Duncan for six years and was finance director prior to becoming deputy MD at the beginning of 2011.

McGrattan, 73, was brought back into the business following the £6.1 million purchase of Todd & Duncan by China’s Zhongyin Cashmere Company in 2009. Previously managing director of Todd & Duncan from 1998 to 2002, he came out of his first retirement with a mission to stabilise the business, improve the order book and strengthen the management team.

“The company is now on a very solid, profitable basis,” McGrattan said. “My task in consolidating all of that is complete, and there is a kind of natural break where it makes sense to hand over to a younger management team as the company heads into the next stage.”

McGrattan said this would involve a heavy emphasis upon research and development into new ways of handling yarn so that it might be produced in different forms for a wider variety of uses. The company is already involved in a research project with Heriot-Watt University.

Previously owned by cash-strapped Dawson International, Todd & Duncan has reclaimed ownership of its Lochleven Mills while under Chinese ownership. The 19-acre site, where 210 people now work, had been mortgaged to a London property company.

McGrattan, who hired 46 new people last year, returned the business to profitability in 2010 and expanded sales by a further 30 per cent in 2011. Customers include virtually every top-end designer brand in the world.

McGrattan said his job as head of Todd & Duncan had always been intended as a short-term appointment, and now was “the ideal time” to hand over to Cormack.

“Since his appointment as my deputy in January last year he has proven to have a sound and solid grip on the business,” McGrattan said.