Restaurant chief Mark Derry has good reason to be a nervous flyer. He narrowly
missed the Lockerbie disaster and then shortly afterwards was involved in a
serious mid-air incident which injured passengers.
“On December 21 1988, I flew on Pan Am 102 to New York in the morning. The
afternoon flight was the one that went down in Lockerbie. We were the last
to know about it because we were still flying and I had some family who
didn’t know which flight we were on, so they were rather worried,” he said.
“It was the start of a round-the-world tour and, soon after, we flew from Los
Angeles to Sydney and the plane just dropped out of the sky for a while
after hitting an air pocket. Anyone not belted in just hit the roof. Some
staff were hurt because they were serving food at the time and we were met
by an ambulance on arrival. I’m all right now, but I wasn’t looking forward
to flying back after that.”
Derry, 47, is the managing director of Loch
Fyne Restaurants, the sustainable seafood group which currently has 38
outlets in the UK and is expanding at home and abroad. Last August, the
company was acquired by Greene King
for £68.1m. Derry has around 1,500 staff and travels in the UK and abroad to
visit restaurants and suppliers.
Any other scary moments?
Not recently, but when I was 21 I worked on the oil platform, drilling for new
oil. Landing in 70mph winds in a helicopter was not fun. We worked 28 days
on and 28 days off, which they don’t allow now because I think it sends
people a bit crazy. There’s no booze and no women, so I just read in my
spare time, but a lot of my fellow workers could barely do that. So we
worked for six months of the year and as a 21 year old, I was paid £40,000,
which was incredible money. Straight after that I went to work for Whitbread
and was paid £8,400 for working for the whole year!
Where do you travel to now?
We go to Brazil to see the coffee growers. I fly to Sao Paolo and then it’s a
five hour drive to get there and when we’re there we travel around on horse,
because it’s the easiest way. I’ve also been to Tampa in Florida, to look at
sites for possible development. We have used Virgin
Atlantic on longer trips, but I tend to travel premium economy with British
Airways on long haul, because you get a good seat, even though the food
isn’t great. On a recent trip back, I arrived at the airport to be
told I was being downgraded, but was going to get a £70 refund! I wasn’t
best pleased, so they then upgraded me to business class, so it all worked
out well. We’re also expanding into Dubai, so I’ve been over there and flown Emirates,
which I think is an excellent service.
How do you pass the time on flights?
I like murder, mystery books and also suspense novels. I read Michael
Robotham’s Shatter on one round trip long-haul flight and I
thought it was excellent. Reading is a great pleasure; before I took the job
at Loch Fyne, I travelled around the world for a year and a half with my
wife and I got through 100 books. On flights, I’ll also watch movies if they
are not too demanding. If I travel with my wife, we’ll always start with a
bloody Mary; I don’t know why and I don’t drink it at any other time, but
it’s become a ritual. On business, I’ll have a couple of glasses of wine and
some food. I never sleep because I don’t sleep brilliantly at the best of
times, so there’s no chance on an airline seat.
Who do you use for short-haul trips?
We have to go and visit wineries and I’ll use British Airways if I can. I
always fly economy on trips to Europe because there’s no point in paying
more on such a short trip. But I’ve also got a house in the south of France
and the three regional airports nearby are all only served by Ryanair,
so I have to use them. It’s OK, but you get exactly what you pay for and not
an ounce more. The only thing I ever really want is to know what seat I’m
going to be on, but of course you don’t get that with Ryanair. If there was
an alternative that cost more money, I’d use it.
