Hanson Trust: Extract from 'Written in Flames'

Extract from the pamphlet Written in Flames, published in 1987. Full reference: I-Spy Productions Written in Flames: Naming the British Ruling Class London: Hooligan Press ISBN 1869802071. Undated, but published in 1987.

These have been good years for the asset strippers. A lot of money lying around. No new investment but a lot of buying. Buying up companies, splittlng them into bits and selling them off. Making a quick profit and enough cash to buy another company. The Hanson Trust has been the most successful of the asset strippers. Lord Hanson and his partner, Sir Gordon White, built up a UK and US conglomerate out of a Yorkshire transport business. With the backing of insurance bosses and pension fund managers. who love speedy returns on their money. Hanson has bought up and sold off until his Trust rang up £464m In ‘86. The firms that have been consumed turn out bricks. chemicals. Smith Corona typewriters and Ever Ready batteries as Glenda Jackson and Denholm Elliot advertlse on TV.

The most recent acquisition was the Imperial Group. Hanson has already sold off Happy Eaters to Fortes. Courage to Elders and Golden Wonder to Dalgety. This leaves Imperial's tobacco brands - Golden Virginia. John Player, Embassy - Ross frozen foods and HP sauce. Trying to steal the Courage pension fund surplus from the Courage pensioners and selling off Ever Ready's high-tech departments to their rival, Duracel1, have been Just a couple of Hanson's money-making manoevers

Lord James Hanson (65) took over his father's Huddersfield business and made his money In the financial and property deals of the 60s. He hung around West End gambling Joints with the other speculators. Soon he could set up his own casinos. He owns £15m worth of Hanson Trust and gets £327,000 a year. His sons went to Eton and Oxford and are now learning their business skills In the free market of the Far East. Hanson Is a Tory Party funder and a good friend of Lord King, the Thatcher government's hatchet man at British Airways

His Mayfair address is 19 Chesterfield House. South Audley Street W1 but he has several other houses, including one in Palm Springs. California.

• Derek Rosling (57). his vice chair. I1ves at 121 East Sheen Avenue. near Richmond SW14.
• Anthony Alexander (49). now heading what's left of Imperial. lives at Crafnant. Gregories Farm Lane. Beaconsfield. Bucks.
• Christopher Harding (48). lives at 169 Longley. Lowerhouses. Huddersfield. He's also a director of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd.
• Gordon Booth who's 66 and a former diplomat and Consul-General in New York lives at Pilgrims Corner. Ebbisham Lane. Walton-on-the-HlIl. in Surrey.