PICTURES BY GRAEME ROWATT
HOT
TOPICS
Nearly 50 years after John Elliott launched Ebac , Peter Barron meets one of the region ’ s most straight-talking businessmen
Once his buttons are pressed , John Elliott is hard to stop . He might be 76 , and officially retired , but he ’ s a whirlwind of a man – talking faster than one of his washing machines whizzing round on maximum setting .
Once his buttons are pressed , John Elliott is hard to
stop . He might be 76 , and officially retired , but he ’ s a whirlwind of a man – talking faster than one of his washing machines whizzing round on maximum setting .
Any plans for a structured interview are pointless as he switches straight to automatic : firing out random thoughts on anything from Covid-19 , Brexit , taxation , politicians , chickens , and white elephants .
We ’ re at a safe distance in his office at the Newton Aycliffe headquarters of Ebac – the company he launched in 1972 to become one of Europe ’ s leading designers and manufacturers of dehumidifiers , water coolers , and washing machines .
“ What ’ s your take on the Government ’ s handling of the pandemic ?” he asks before I ’ ve sat down . There ’ s no time to reply before he delivers his own withering assessment : “ I ’ m disappointed in Boris . It ’ s been shambolic .”
“ It ’ s like fighting a war ,” he adds . “ You have to do three things : attack the enemy , protect your own people , and deal with the casualties .
“ We spent too long on the third one – trying to make sure the NHS could cope – and not enough on the first two . We didn ’ t attack the enemy because track and trace failed , and we didn ’ t protect people because the advice on face masks was completely wrong for months . On top of that , we were too slow into lockdown .”
Economically , he believes the only way forward is to raise taxes . “ We ’ ve got to balance the books ,” he insists , with a shrug of the shoulders .
John has never been afraid to air his opinions , which is why he was drafted in as a key figure in the successful “ No ” campaign during the 2004 referendum on a North-East elected assembly .
The campaign is perhaps best remembered for the inflatable white elephant , symbolising the battle cry that another tier of politicians would be a waste of time and money .
“ We weren ’ t that clever really ,” he says . “ People figured it out for themselves . They saw through it – that it would be more bureaucracy with no power .”
He recalls how a certain Dominic Cummings was part of the North-East ’ s “ No ” campaign long before he became Boris ’ chief adviser and popped to Barnard Castle to test his eyesight . “ Where ’ s the white elephant now ?” I wonder . “ In Dominic Cummings ’ uncle ’ s garage , last I heard ,” comes the reply .
Having addressed the elephant in the room , we finally get down to John ’ s life story . Born in Bishop Auckland , he was just six months old when his father , Jack , who had Elliott ’ s Bakery , died .
Jack ’ s widow , Doris , along with John and his brothers Tony and Colin , moved to Lands Bank , at Cockfield . “ We didn ’ t have electricity ‘ til I was 11 ,” John recalls .
No bright spark academically , he left school at 15 without qualifications , but his entrepreneurial instincts quickly kicked in . He and Tony bought 500 chickens , started selling eggs , and cracked the local market .
While Tony continued to develop the poultry farm , it was only ever a sideline for John . While many of his
The magazine for Aycliffe Business Park | 17