Solid plastics
Nigel Vinson, a contributor to the SPECTATOR and Chairman of Plastic Coating Ltd of Guildford has sold his company of which he owns 54 per cent of the shares to the Imperial Tobacco Company for £4.7 million. It will presumably be merged with Creators of Woking. which has given Imperial Tobacco so much trouble.
Nigel Vinson, still a hard-working bachelor, is a detail man and expert on the most out-of-the-way matters. At dinner I once heard someone mention decorative geological specimens. to have him explain how to reach some warehouse behind the Essoldo Cinema in Chelsea supplying crystals to the Natural History Museum.
It is out of fashion just now, to hear of anyone making a fortune through organic growth outside the world of property speculation, the manipulation of people's savings through the unit tryst movement, or in building a conglomerate. Since Plastic Coating has been sold at a good price, it might be worth buying a few shares in Stewart Plastics Ltd of Croydon—making garden troughs and kitchen bowls and now entering the lucrative ice bucket business. It is run by a Polish war hero and big-winner at golf, with the unlikely name of Charles Dug- gan-Chapman. This business, like Plastic Coating (though a bit bigger), has a theme which would suit Imperial Tobacco. Mr Partridge of Imperial Tobacco should make sure he keeps Nigel Vinson or Charles Dug- gan-Chapman to run this part of his organisation and not let both of them get away with a 'walkaway' deal. Both of these fine businesses owe more to their founders than they modestly admit.
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