Dundee businessman Jimmy Urquhart has been grafting since he was just 12 years old.
Starting out as a paper delivery boy and berry picker, he now owns one of the country’s most successful packaging firms – which supplies some of the world’s biggest brands.
In 2019, the father-of-two dramatically turned around the fortunes of Discovery Flexibles when he took over the 70-year-old business as it headed for liquidation.
Warned by his solicitor the firm was “like a car headed straight for a brick wall”, Jimmy was determined to save the jobs of his long-term colleagues.
Shock diagnosis
However, the 56-year-old revealed the acquisition – while hugely successful – came at a cost to his health.
Two years ago, while sitting in the board room at the Stobswell site, Jimmy suffered a stroke that left him almost blind in one eye.
“I think that was the wake-up call I needed that I am not invincible and had to slow down,” Jimmy said.
“For the first time since I was a boy, I was out of action for three months and off work.
“My priorities have had to change. I used to be the first one in and last one out and work weekends but I don’t have to do that for the business to work.
“This was a warning shot. And, I know too well the dangers of not paying heed to that.”
After losing his own dad at 46 to a heart attack – when he was just 17 – Jimmy did not want his own family suffering the same fate.
His father Jim Urquhart, a bin lorry foreman and former grave digger, had his first heart attack at 37.
Discover Flexibles success for Jimmy Urquhart came at a price
Coupar Angus-born Jimmy, who now lives in Burrelton with wife and childhood sweetheart Wendy, will never know what led to his stroke.
However, he believes the stress of being solely responsible for bringing Discovery Flexibles back to profitability after he bought it over in 2019 was a contributory factor.
At the end of 2018, factory manager Jimmy was faced with a choice – see the company he had worked at for his entire career go bust or take the reins himself. He chose the latter.
Thanks to hard work and “tough business decisions”, in 2023, Discovery Flexibles achieved its best ever sales, with turnover of £16.2 million.
Operating profits have increased year on year and exceeded the £1m mark for the first time ever.
The firm’s customer base – which is predominantly UK-based firms, from supermarkets and bakers to renowned confectionary and crisp brands – has also grown by a third.
‘Fighting for guys I grew up with’
Jimmy, who left school at 16 to begin a print apprenticeship at Discovery Flexibles, said: “There is so much pressure when you take on a business that is on the brink of collapse and when that’s all on one person, it is huge.
“When I was close to completing the deal, my solicitor asked me why I was doing it.
“He likened it to a car heading towards a brick wall.
“But I wanted to fight for all the guys I had grown up with, my friends and colleagues who would lose their jobs.
“I needed to give it my best shot so I could sleep at night knowing I had at least tried.
“It’s a tough industry with high volumes and low margins but since taking over we have exceeded every expectation.
“We have also added 19 jobs and put £3.5m back into the local economy.”
He added: “I have a habit of diving into things with blind ignorance and hoping for the best.
“I built my house from scratch on a slope, with an inverted roof and it is still standing.
“I’m a big believer in giving things a bash.”
Unlike some industries, Brexit has actually benefitted Discovery Flexibles as 96% of their customers are UK-based and many more now use them to save export and import tariffs.
The firm is also the only one in the country to still use both traditional gravure printing as well as a ‘flexopress’.
From teenage fruit picker to CEO
As a child, Jimmy admits his family didn’t have much and as soon as he could, he was picking berries and potatoes at local farms and delivering The Courier and Evening Telegraph to pay for his school uniform.
At weekends and in the evening, he would accompany his father in his video delivery van to make ends meet.
He would also help his parents out at the Larghan Park pitch and putt in Coupar Angus every summer.
His parents were never able to afford to take him and his younger brother on holiday – even close to home. Something he was determined to do for his own daughters – now 31 and 33.
Bought motorbike with first pay packet
Despite doing well in his O-grades at Blairgowrie High School, when he saw an advert in The Courier for a print apprenticeship position at Discovery Renewables in the city he jumped at the chance.
He admits: “No-one ever expected me to go to university or anything. I didn’t know anyone who did that.
“I was a straight A student but wasn’t that interested in school, I wanted do do something hands on.
“The print apprenticeship was a dream come true. To get paid for just 36 hours and have weekends free was so new to me.
“When I went in on my first day and saw Penguin and Twix wrappers were being made there, I thought ‘now I have made it’!
Jimmy laughs when he recalls first his weekly salary of £43.56, adding: “I was the best paid of all the apprentices I knew.
“I managed to pay my digs money to my mum and bought a little 50cc motorbike to get back and forth to Dundee.”
Jimmy quickly rose up through the ranks of the company – on the site of a former Dundee jute mill – after “pestering” bosses to take on extra jobs.
Jimmy Urquhart determined to give Discovery Flexibles staff a chance to shine
Told he was “too young” and to “bide his time”, he didn’t take no for an answer.
He progressed from apprentice printer to shift manager, print process manager, continuous improvement manager, product manager, operations manager, operations director and then general manager when the company became independent.
He now prefers to promote from within, “valuing attitude over qualifications”.
A “hands on” father while his wife worked shifts as a nurse, the businessman is now enjoying his new role as “Grandad Jimmy”.
Every Friday since his grandson Luke, now three, was three months old he has looked after him so his daughter could work.
“I think it is one of my favourite roles to date,” Jimmy admits.
“Seeing Luke grow up and getting to be a huge part of his life is not something I take for granted.”
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