Entrepreneur who relaunched the Caithness flagstone industry
Born: December 27, 1949;
Died: August 28, 2018
JOHN William 'Jocky' Sutherland, who has died aged 68, was a self-made businessman who will be chiefly remembered for his key role in re-launching the traditional but near moribund Caithness flagstone industry into the modern era.
Mr Sutherland's companies introduced state-of-the-art extracting, cutting, milling and polishing equipment in the 1990s to once again make the natural hard-stone Caithness flagstone competitive in modern Scottish, UK and international market-places.
Every day tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Scots walk on streets paved with the hard-wearing naturally-riven (and thus non-slip) flagstone, especially in city and town centre redevelopments completed over the past quarter-century, largely thanks to Jocky Sutherland's efforts.
His Caithness Flagstone Ltd company has two of his sons, Paul and Robert as directors, who state that they will carry the firm forward.
The businessman's other firms will also remain prominent in a range of far north enterprises, from entertainment to farming, house-building, providing laundry services to local hotels and an estate-agency.
Father-of-six John Sutherland was the second son of Ian and Hilda Sutherland, who farmed near Bower, a Caithness village on the road between Wick and Castletown.
A keen pupil at Bower primary school where he was first dubbed Jocky, he went on to Wick High.
Whilst still a schoolboy he established a small flock of pedigree rams as well as being a keen footballer with the village's amateur team.
In his teens, he served an apprenticeship as a butcher in Thurso and some now-elderly housewives recall him on the delivery bike from shop to homes.
With a trade secured, Jocky decided to emigrate to Australia. From Sydney he went to Queensland's Gold Coast, where he met his future wife Catherine. Together they established a chicken rearing business in a seven-acre holding amidst sugar-cane plantations.
After some years of moderate success with Jocky's Chunky Chickens, he decided to take Cathy and their two sons back on holiday to his homeland, but the family decided to stay, Mr Sutherland sensing that there were real opportunities for profitable business there.
Initially, he envisaged a fresh chickens facility in Wick before moving into the flagstone industry. As news of the quality of the stone spread, so did paving contracts roll in to company's headquarters.
By 2010, a trade magazine writer wrote that Mr Sutherland's works were amongst the very best equipped in the UK. As well as modern diamond-tipped saws, Caithness Flagstone Ltd uses a high-pressure water-jet stone-cutter, specialist stone-polishing kit and a state-of-the art laser etching machine.
The latter two allows the firm to access markets for indoor floorings, bathroom worktops and interior furnishings, the memorial and commemorative plaque trades, whilst the company's artist designs goods that are then sold over the internet as well as from CFL's showrooms at Spittal.
Tributes were paid to Mr Sutherland. Caithness Chamber of Commerce CEO Trudy Morris said: "He was a fixture of the business community here, he supported the chamber's activities and generously sponsored our Young Entrepreneur of the Year and Young Business Awards over many years."
John Sutherland, who lived in Wick, is survived by his widow Cathy, six children Paul, Sarah, George, Robert, Caitlin and Thomas, and six grandchildren.
BILL MOWAT
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