Business Lunch - The Homemaker

Athole Murray Fleming has lunch with
John Stephen, A&J Stephen Ltd

John Stephen

In 1935 two bricklaying brothers founded A&J Stephen Ltd, building homes in Perthshire. Today, this very well known and respected family business is run by John Stephen, grandson of the original John Stephen. Having met his father quite a number of years ago when I was working for another magazine I was keen to meet John to find out his thoughts and plans for the business. Our venue was The Huntingtower Hotel, which has recently changed management, and has refurbishment on-going. Business associates had given me excellent reports of the food there, and with it becoming the latest member of our very own Good Food Club, to the Huntingtower Hotel we went.

Only three minutes from the city boundary, it is quite simply a beautiful, peaceful place set in delightful grounds.

Douglas Jack, the Restaurant Manager, handed us our menus and we settled down to make our choices. For his first course John Stephen chose a leek and potato soup, I decided to have the breast of pigeon with wild mushrooms and my scribe chose the red onion and goat’s cheese tart. And while we waited to be shown to our table in the conservatory restaurant, I put my first question to John.

How did you start in the family business?

I took an Honours degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Abertay Dundee and joined the company on June 11th, 1990 at the age of 23. My rôle right from the start has been the business of land acquisition. It’s what I still do today. I’m still trying to locate sites and buy them for development. Currently I am the only family member directly involved in the day to day management of the business.

I saw lately that you had become a Director of the Perthshire Chamber of Commerce. Outside your day-to-day business what other business-related activities hold your attention?

Prior to being involved in the Chamber I really wasn’t involved in very much except my work for A&J Stephen – which must sound very boring. I find my business totally absorbing. However, I was given a Chamber remit I felt I could undertake and be of service to the Chamber. One of the major constraints on economic development within Perthshire at the moment is the lack of drainage capacity. With my background in development I can help the Chamber highlight this problem. For instance, on behalf of the Chamber, I recently had a meeting with the First Minister Jack McConnell on Scottish Water issues. It can be difficult to ensure people understand my interest is on behalf of the Chamber and not for A&J Stephen. It’s quite a balancing act but I think it is well understood.

Also, I’m a member of the High Constables of Perth. I accepted this invitation because I felt it was important to keep such a historic society going. I was asked a few years ago to join the Rotary – my father is a great Rotary devotee – but I turned it down since I felt to do it justice would entail more time than I could spare.

At this point we were shown to our table. To enjoy with our food, my scribe and I both chose to have a glass of the house red – a Californian Willow Wood Merlot; John chose the house white – a Chilean sauvignon blanc. With our starters before us it was time for the next question.

Clathymore development

How do you balance business and family life? What about leisure time – sport? Holidays? Relaxation?

It’s not easy – and my wife Heather would agree. I tend to get home between 7 and 8. I always try to be home before the children’s bed-time and contain my work to 5 days. The weekends I keep free for the family. We have three children – Beth who’s 7, John who’s 5 and 1-year-old Archie. Heather works for VisitScotland part-time and based at home, so she can balance her work with the children. As to sport – well, I tend not to have time, except cycling occasionally, very occasionally. We holiday in Scotland and I confess to combining some work with travel in Scotland. I’d like to take the children camping but Archie is just a bit too young still for that. On a typical weekend we are running children to parties, to tennis lessons and so on.

Relaxation? I have discovered I really can switch right off if I am away from the office on holiday.

I suppose that must mean you have a good support team?

Yes. The company is really fortunate. At A & J Stephen we have a lot of long-term employees who know the business very well. In addition to myself there is a team of five senior managers running the business.

Is your father still involved?

My father and three other retired directors come to Board meetings once a month. When my father decided to retire he actually cut the ties far more quickly than I thought he would. He and my mother live near us at St. Madoes and they baby-sit for us to allow us to socialise at the weekend. This soup, by the way, is very good indeed.

My scribe said her red onion and goat’s cheese tart was melt-in-the-mouth delicious and I found the pigeon breast very tender, medium cooked and an excellent light starter. For our main courses John had ordered roast lamb, my scribe chose the roast salmon and I’d decided to have a mushroom risotto. As soon as we’d been served we returned to the “inquisition” once more.