Bob Lees Obituary
Words by Christopher Lees
“An absolute titan and a compassionate and kind man”, Baron Sikka, Member of the House of Lords.
In 1970, two of the world’s richest men, Robert Pritzker and David Rockefeller, asked 34-year-old Bob Lees to join the Young Presidents’ Organisation, a prestigious club for “extraordinary chief executives”. Never one to fawn to powerful people, he turned them both down. He was “too busy”.
Born during the Great Depression, Bob’s father died when he was nearly two, meaning he lived with his grandparents during the Second World War while his mother worked. After his mother re-married, Bob became the “peacemaker” of a dysfunctional family with four sisters. At Grammar School he would do his homework under the stairs at night. It was the only time he could get any peace but his stepdad would stay up late, constantly re-tuning the radio to cause disturbance.
His early career saw him work on the railways, then National Service in the RAF, cost accounts in the computer division at Ferranti in the late 1950s then start his own haulage business with one tipper truck.
Between 1964 and 1966, he was PA to the chairman of Pakamac, clothing manufacturers who had got entangled in all manner of misadventures including cryogenics. Bob was responsible for planning the re-organisation of the company’s management structure and it’s systems and procedures, including its Dutch subsidiary.
In 1966 he became controller of Pikrose & Co in Audenshaw, a manufacturer of mining machinery employing about 500 people and owned by the giant American conglomerate Marmon Group, which was owned by the billionaire Pritzker family. Pikrose was founded by Austin Hopkinson who donated his home, Ryecroft Hall, to the people of Audenshaw.
Between 1968 and 1971 Bob was the Managing Director of Pikrose and responsible for the strategy and management of all Marmon Group’s UK and European operations. When Bob took over Pikrose, the company had no order book, was loss making and in serious trouble. Its 500 employees stood to lose their jobs.
Bob said: “The engineers on the shop floor were extremely skilled and there had to be other things, beyond mining, that the company could do with those skills.”
Entrepreneurial by nature, he structured a deal with General Electric to supply a huge number of water wells across the newly independent country Bangladesh.
He structured an even bigger deal with the Cuban Government to supply equipment for their programme to develop their sugar industry.
When his American boss, Robert Pritzker, said US companies could not deal with Cuba so the deal had to be called off, Bob argued the case vehemently, convincing Pritzker to resign as a fellow director to make the deal compliant with US law.
President Nixon had to re-direct his flight to handle the imbroglio. Pikrose became a profitable company with new markets at home and abroad, a big order book and a firm base for future development.
Bob had married Ann in 1967, first son Richard was born in 1971 and because his role at Marmon was keeping him away from home, he left.
Between then and 1985, Bob had a series of well-known shops in Stalybridge – Hardcastles, the toy shop, sports shops on Melbourne Street (sold to Ron Hill) and in Marple, and a clothes shop on Market Street.
Between 1981 and 1985, he ran a business consultancy based in St Anne’s Square in Manchester which led to him advising, then buying, a struggling clothing manufacturer, Aldon, with factories in Stretford, Wigan and Ashton-under-Lyne. The business employed about 400 people, had been unprofitable for years and was in financial difficulties.
The owner was considering liquidating the company. Bob made the company profitable within six months of buying it. The financial backers, Lazards Bank, wanted national publicity because the deal had been so successful but Bob always shunned limelight so declined. The company became one of the UK’s fastest growing private companies.
In 1990 Bob had the idea of buying out and merging two of his customers, the struggling gentleman retailer Dunn & Co. and Hodges. Dunn & Co was then one of the UK’s largest fashion retailers. Bob put together a buyout team including the founding partner of Dibb Lupton Alsop, Roger Lane-Smith, and senior partners from Ernst & Young with Nomura Bank ring-fencing £120 million for the deal. Negotiations were reported in the national newspapers and, again, Bob largely kept his name out of the story.
Ultimately Bob withdrew his offer. The deal became unworkable but over the same period Bob’s business made another investment that was to get a lot of publicity for entirely different reasons – the purchase of a clothing brand established in 1962, Bentley.
The history of the firm, Bentley Clothing has been covered by The Correspondent and can be read here.
Beyond work and family, Bob’s dream was to write a book about how a fairer and more successful society could, and should, be nurtured by fundamental changes in national economic policy and thinking. The Times newspaper asked Bob to write an article he’d drafted in 1981 writing, the “subject needs raising and is of vital importance.” Dr. Nout Wellink, one-time President of the Bank for International Settlements wrote that he “felt humbled” by Bob’s “visionary thinking”.
Sadly, Bob never got the chance to write his book.
Robert Lees, entrepreneur, was born on September 25, 1936. He died of metastatic duodenal adenocarcinoma on March 23 2025, aged 88.
Night G’Bless Dad