Chairman of British Steel who made ruthless cuts in preparation for privatisation in 1988
Had it not been for his earthy Yorkshireness, his monosyllabic candour and, most of all, the snootiness of the political establishment, Sir Robert Scholey, who has died aged 92, would have been a celebrated captain of industry long before he finally became chairman of British Steel in 1986.
"Black Bob" – a sobriquet he earned for his early habit of wearing a black protective helmet when moving around steelworks – could be needlessly critical and disparaging. He liked being different, was bloody-minded and made enemies easily. But he was brilliant at his work, with an unparalleled knowledge of the steel industry. Only elitism kept him away from the top job for so long.
Scholey joined the board of British Steel in 1973, when he also became chief executive. From 1976 he also served as deputy chairman of the board, first to Sir Monty Finniston, probably the most cerebral of all British Steel chairmen, and later to an old Etonian, Sir Charles Villiers, whom Scholey despised, perhaps unfairly. Then he was deputy to Sir Ian MacGregor, whose judgment he mistrusted. Even when MacGregor moved to the National Coal Board in 1983 and most observers assumed Scholey would replace him, he was not moved up to chairman. This time Sir Robert (later Lord) Haslam got the job, doubling up as part-time chairman of Tate and Lyle.
Senior civil servants lobbied against appointing Scholey, believing he would be too abrasive as chairman at a time when huge cuts were needed in preparation for privatisation. But Haslam quickly recognised Scholey's value and effectively handed him the job of running the industry, finally persuading the prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, to override civil service objections and appoint Scholey.
By now approaching retirement age, Scholey flexed his muscles in the runup to privatisation, which took place two years later. He had never disguised his support for Thatcher's objective of selling off the steel industry, though he would have preferred it to have been handled rather differently.
By the time of the flotation at the end of 1988, Scholey had turned a loss-making industry into one that was turning a £500m-a-year profit. When there was a 13-week strike in 1980 – Thatcher's first major industrial test – there were more than 200,000 steelworkers. As Scholey took over as chairman, the workforce was down to about 60,000, and at privatisation the figure was 50,000.
The cutbacks were ruthless – similar in many ways to those imposed on the coal industry. In some circles Scholey was demonised for closing the huge Ravenscraig steelworks in Lanarkshire, a symbolic landmark. But he and the government claimed the cuts were necessary to turn British Steel into an internationally competitive force. By the time he retired in 1992 he had chalked up large profits for six of his seven years as chairman. Output had fallen to 12m tonnes a year when he retired, from 27m tonnes in 1967. But the business had become one of the most profitable steel groups in the world.
Behind Scholey's brusque carapace lay a keen and sensitive intellect with a fascination for classical history, a special interest in the Napoleonic period, a passion for Etruscan art, and above all a devotion to opera, notably Wagner. As he grew older he became increasingly attracted to foreign languages, taught himself French and read two French newspapers before any in English. In his retirement he and his wife, Joan Methley, whom he married in 1946, spent much time touring the sites of ancient Greek, Roman and north African civilisations.
It would have been tempting to view Scholey as a working-class lad who had hauled himself up by his bootstraps. Yet he was the son of middle-class professional parents and his father, Harold, was a relatively prosperous skilled technician who spent 52 years in the steel industry, rising to the board of English Steel.
Born in Sheffield, Robert was educated at the city's King Edward VII school and, via evening classes, at Sheffield University. His apprenticeship in steel began as an engineering trainee with English Steel. The second world war intervened, and in 1943 he joined the army, serving most of the time in India, where he rose to the rank of captain.
Demobbed in 1947, he took his first postwar job with the Rotherham steel firm, Steel, Peech and Tozer. Ten years later he was appointed works manager of the company's railway materials division and then its strip mills. From there he moved to Samuel Fox at Stocksbridge near Sheffield, where he was eventually a director and general works manager. In 1967 the firm was absorbed into the nationalised British Steel Corporation.
Scholey was appointed CBE in 1982 and knighted in 1987. He is survived by Joan, their two daughters, Frances and Rachel, two grandchildren, and a great grandson.
• Robert Scholey, industrialist, born 8 October 1921;died 12 January 2014
• Geoffrey Goodman died last year