Scotsman Obituaries: Adam Muggoch OBE, Managing Director of Scotbeef

‘Keep having good ideas, until I like one,” the advice given to a young Adam Muggoch by his then employer – Lord Marks of Marks & Spencer. Muggoch carried this business mantra throughout his working life of over half a century, during which he became one of the most progressive innovators in Scotland’s red meat industry, introducing practices later emulated by UK and overseas meat businesses.

Muggoch’s very first day on this Earth, 17 January 1934, was probably the most disorganised in his 92 years. His Scottish parents had intended their baby would be born in Scotland. However, as Christina Muggoch (neé Mathieson) headed to Euston Station to catch a Scotland-bound train to fulfil the project, baby Adam firmly insisted London would be his birthplace.

Muggoch’s initial career plan was to follow his father – also Adam – into the textile industry, and in 1953 he graduated from Salford Royal Technical College as a Textile Technologist.

Adam Muggoch introduced beef traceability from farm through to retail shelf

Two years of National Service as a Subaltern in the Royal Signals in Germany promptly followed, marking the beginning of his long and happy military involvement, including as a Territorial Army volunteer. By 1965 he was Major Muggoch in the Regular Army Reserve, entitling him to “Go Down the Hole”, in the event of an atomic attack.

During his National Service, much of Britain’s textile manufacturing equipment was being sold overseas, triggering a career change. He entered Marks & Spencer’s Management Training Scheme. By letter, he was instructed to report to the Kirkcaldy store on 1 January 1956, a Sunday. The next mail brought a letter from the M&S Kirkcaldy manager offering the option of arriving either on 31 December to collect the keys, as he would be only person in the store on 1 January, or – like the rest of the staff – he could arrive on 3 January.

Muggoch worked with M&S for 20 years. After four retail teeth-cutting years in Kirkcaldy and Glasgow stores, he transferred to M&S’s London Head Office, where he came under the wing of Simon, later Lord Marks​

M&S recognised their food section offered growth opportunities. Muggoch spent eight years as a Group Executive in the rapidly evolving Food Division as it moved away from frozen/ambient foods to chilled.

One M&S meat supplier was family owned Scottish meat company JW Galloway, chaired by Ian Galloway. Muggoch’s dealings with Galloway proved life changing when a remark to Galloway that he was considering returning to his homeland generated an immediate job offer.

By 1976, Muggoch was Managing Director of Scotbeef, a subsidiary of JW Galloway, and he and family – wife Bernice (neé Johnson) and their two sons, Duncan and Iain – were living in the village of Rhu on the east shore of the Gare Loch. Sailing was a favourite pastime, with many weekends spent racing his 1924-built, 24-foot Gareloch One design racing yacht, the Luna. Winter months saw him supporting the Scottish rugby team.

When Muggoch joined the Galloway business there were 54 shops, two factories and an abattoir. Within a few years, all shops were sold and the business focused on supplying meat to UK multiples and overseas markets. Scotbeef was the first UK firm to pack fresh beef, pork and lamb in modified atmosphere retail packs, adding days to the meat’s shelf life. And by the early 1990s, Scotbeef was exporting approximately £11 million worth of beef to the Continent annually.

Food retail with M&S, had taught Muggoch that to entice and retain discerning, premium paying, beef-buying customers, the beef needed to be consistently good to eat – tasty, tender and succulent. Working with M&S, Scotbeef developed “BeefTrack” to identify the factors which contributed to superior eating quality. This project demanded full traceability from farm through to retail shelf.

Taste trials revealed that beef from Aberdeen Angus cattle consistently tasted better than meat from other breeds. Scotbeef supplied the first premium-priced, branded Aberdeen Angus beef, with barcode provenance, to M&S in 1992. Their beef sales significantly increased. Other major UK retailers copied the sale of beef with breed branding and/or provenance. Traceability was a crucial advantage during the turbulent days of BSE. Scotbeef’s “BeefTrack” system, which included all cattle from the company’s 2,000 farmer suppliers, gave assurance to shoppers and British beef’s biggest customer, McDonald’s. When European beef export markets slammed shut in 1996, McDonald’s dropped British beef. Thanks to Scotbeef’s “BeefTrack” traceability, McDonald’s resumed buying beef from the company in July 1997.

While BSE storms battered British beef production, Galloway and Muggoch were designing and building a cattle processing facility with groundbreaking advances in efficiency, food safety, hygiene and animal and staff welfare. This standard-setting operation near Stirling opened in 2000.

By then the EU had partially lifted its British beef embargo. But not France, a stance stridently supported by Marie-José Nicoli, head of the French Consumers’ Association. Muggoch persuaded this formidable lady to visit the Stirling plant. Her report to the French Senate? “I would be happy to eat beef off the floor of the Scotbeef cattle processing line!”

In 2007, Scotbeef opened a £17 million consumer-focused venture near Glasgow. Here over 150 different, retail-ready beef lines, packaged in relevant retailer livery, were produced daily for UK and European customers. On the opening day Muggoch explained: “Here we have advanced the processing of fresh meat as far as it can go.” That evening, aged 73, he starred at his retirement party, where the finest of beef was enjoyed.

He served on many meat industry committees, and his wise counsel was often sought by British and Scottish governments.

In 2007 he was appointed OBE for Services to Agriculture and the Meat Industry, and 2010 saw him elected a Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Societies (FRAgS).

Bernice predeceased him in 2021. He is survived by sons Duncan, a film and television producer, and Iain, who runs his own drinks business, and four granddaughters.

A memorial service and celebration of Adam’s life will be held at noon on 4 December at Rhu and Shandon Church, near Helensburgh, donations to Cancer Research UK welcome.

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