The passing of Dr. Syd Millar C.B.E
The passing of Dr. Syd Millar C.B.E, or simply “Syd” as we all knew him, recently, was the end of an era, both in rugby football terms but also in the history of the development of the company we now know as Northstone.
Syd’s first career was as a junior officer in the Merchant Navy with both Shell and BP, although there is no doubt that he had to do his share of work in the family butchery business in Ballymena as a boy.
His sporting love was, of course rugby, so he came back home from sea and took a job as sales executive in Shell, the well known oil and fuel business. This enabled him to continue his career at Ballymena Rugby Football Club, where he excelled alongside his lifetime friend, Willie John McBride. His rugby achievements are legendary and are well documented elsewhere. In summary, he played for Ulster, Ireland (38 caps) and the British Lions (now the British and Irish Lions), touring both South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Probably the pinnacle of his rugby career was as coach of the unbeaten 1974 Lions team in South Africa, with his good friend Willie John as Captain. He was also inducted into the International Hall of Fame for his outstanding contribution to rugby. As a final rugby tribute, he was awarded the Légion d’Honneur in 2007 as Chairman of Rugby World Cup, by the French Government.
Farrans has, of course, been a leading name in the local construction industry for many years. Initially a privately owned company (Sam Taggart), a decision had been made to diversify the business and ready mixed concrete was an obvious direction to go. Farrans used a lot of concrete so it made sense to have the supply in-house - hence the evolution of Ready Use Concrete Ltd. The late John Brown, a civil engineer who had previously worked for Farrans, was brought in and tasked to develop the concrete business. As concrete uses a lot of sand and gravel, it made sense to secure aggregate supplies. Scott Brothers, based in Toomebridge, extracted sand from Lough Neagh and also from pits in the Draperstown/Tobermore areas. John Brown developed a good relationship with the Scotts and eventually acquired their business on behalf of the Group, renaming it Scott (Toomebridge) Limited.
Syd was brought into the Company (November 1973) by John Brown, to oversee the Scott business as General Manager. Scotts also had a developing rooftile and concrete block manufacturing operation in Toomebridge. Ownership of the Farrans Group then changed to T.B.F Thompson (Garvagh) Ltd, which brought in the extensive quarry operations of R J Maxwell and Sons Ltd.
CRH plc purchased the entire operation in 1978 and Syd had a seat on the Farrans Group management board as Managing Director of Scotts. He held this position until his retirement in 1994.
He was held in very high esteem by the senior executives of CRH, particularly the Managing Director, Tony Barry. This relationship was a very positive one for the confidence it engendered with CRH and the Farrans Group. Syd’s great strength was that he interacted with his Toomebridge staff and operatives in exactly the same way as he talked to senior executives, both in the commercial world, Government ministers and Rugby Associations. He was genuinely interested in his people and their families, being on first name terms with everyone. His integrity was unquestioned in all of the various encounters he had with customers, colleagues, suppliers and local communities around Lough Neagh and beyond. He had a unique filing system to deal with all of the various reports, memos etc that came his way - a black plastic bag that he kept in the well of his desk. Read once and then dispose!
Syd was a fine example as to how to manage people, with respect and integrity. For those of us who worked closely with him, it was a great privilege to have known him. Thank you to Noel Quinn, former CEO of the Northstone Group, for this thoughtful insight into the life and career of Syd.