Name: Ramsay MacDonald
Job title: Business owner of RM Solutions Limited
Forecourt guru Ramsay MacDonald is well-known for consulting on major industry projects from the award-winning Essar Lea Gate site, to Oilfast’s unmanned fascia. But he has been just as busy behind the scenes over the past year getting to grips with the purchase of an electric car, visiting Japan, and celebrating 25 years of marriage with his wife Helen.
01. Your career history: I was studying marketing at uni and we had a seminar on petrol stations on how to make them more appealing and more customer focussed. Just weeks later I had loads of thoughts for an interview with Mobil, and this led to them offering me a job. I had 10 brilliant years with Mobil starting as a rep in Sheffield, and I probably learned most of what I know about filling stations from the business both here and working in Spain.
BP in Milton Keynes followed. Yes, I still have PTSD from that, but they taught me about buying and selling businesses, especially selling. That led to a spell at Certas and latterly at Essar.
What I like doing most in the industry is identifying site potentials, greenfields or existing locations, and making them better, not just through investment, but every aspect of retail through to marketing, improving sales, customer service and reasons to shop, all with an eye to the future. I also love acquiring and selling/leasing sites and that’s in a nutshell what I do now with RM Solutions Limited.
I act in a non executive role for Highway Stops having known Tony and Shilan for a long time and I am also working with Naz at Refuel on many levels. I act as a non-exec for Credentia, with Abhishek, who have real expertise in getting the data you need to run a business especially successful contract management. As part of a varied portfolio I also work with Phil at Evenlode and together we have done some site improvement and procurement exercises for clients as well as the Edison EV forecaster. I am actively looking for sites to acquire anywhere in the UK at the moment.
02. Dream job: It probably sounds trite but I think I now finally have it. Only now do I have both the luxury to only do what I want, but also the time to think much more about how to approach opportunities and problems and If I don’t know an answer then I usually know someone who does. It is one of the few benefits of getting older. I don’t miss corporate life at all, but it has given me fantastic stories and I have met loads of great mates in the companies I worked in.
03. What do you drive? Normally you will see me in my trusty Vauxhall Insignia especially if checking out locations, but I made the move to EV last year and got a Porsche Taycan which has rollercoaster acceleration. One benefit was having four seats so I can also put the family through that experience. If you’ve not driven an EV then give it a go, I was well impressed, but I’ve always loved driving. Charging overnight costs around £3, but it has also given me insight into getting a trusted EV offer on the roadside and what really matters when you need to charge.
04. Perfect day: Quite a few options. Seeing my team Rangers win at football is pretty special, but when they lose it is not great. Days skiing with the lads is always up there, but I have not been on the slopes for a bit. Meeting up with friends sitting in the sun is also just fine. It is all about the company and the experience. A good walk with the dogs and the family in the Scottish countryside is great on so many levels. Actually, great days at work when you watch something finally happen when it’s been in the planning for a while are hard to beat. I drove all the way to the Essar Lea Gate to see it open. I had worked on that location for years and knew it was brilliant.
05. Best holiday: We had a family holiday to Japan last year and it was mind blowing. I loved it. I would consider moving there if I was 30 years younger. The people really surprised me with their friendliness, work ethic, cleanliness, and just general ingenuity.
06. Holiday wish-list: Wow, I used to assiduously study atlases as a lad, so the whole world is interesting. Argentina/Chile as well as Australia/New Zealand would be near the top, so I will have to keep working for a while longer.
07. Favourite read: Jees this is so difficult. Any historical book is first choice, but Catch 22 is a favourite as well as The Great Gatsby.
08. Three words to describe yourself: Loyal, competitive and thrawn (Scots), means I can be a bit stubborn. I get that from my mother. The Spanish call it “cabezon“.
09. Possessions you could not do without: I am often told that I am addicted to my phone, so I guess it’s the phone. I keep claiming it’s for work, but no one seems to listen. I don’t know if I could do without a car either.
10. What do you most admire? Talent. People with creative talent. The ability to play music, or create art, or make something useful, anything that requires loads of patience and dexterity. Thank goodness there are loads of people who can do this because I am useless on that score.
11. Favourite sports person: Wow that’s not easy. Always loved Muhammad Ali, and the book by Norman Mailer about his fight in Zaire is a great read, but I’m going to go for Ally McCoist – as a player I always fancied him to score, and Big Jock Wallace as manager. He made Alex Ferguson look like a shrinking violet and they spoke about him fondly when I lived in Sevilla.
12. Best news over the past 12 months: Well my wife Helen and I celebrated 25 years of marriage last year and have now been together for more than 30 years, so I am pretty chuffed with that, although I am not sure where the time went. I was also pleased to see my eldest buy his own place and get off the family payroll, as well as climbing over 100 Munros (mountains over 3,000 ft), whilst my youngest smashed his Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award in the wilds of Harris and got into uni doing marketing. He actually made an appearance at the Refuel event in Spain last year as a “ hanger oner” and somehow seemed to know more folks than me at the end of the event. Mmm.
13. Recent achievements: I need to up my game on this. I did manage to finally climb Ben Nevis (CMD arete route) on a marvellous sunny day, but I need to get fitter in 2025. I said that last year as well.
14. What’s your pet peeve: Gosh, loads but I’m not a fan of waste in anything really, including food and energy, and don’t like wasting time at work.
15. Biggest fear: I don’t think I have any. Clearly you never want to survive your kids or your spouse, but that’s not in our gift to decide.
16. Most important qualities in the workplace: Trust facts over opinions. The ability to keep calm, not always easy for me, in fraught situations. I’m not sure if you have heard of the parable of the wind and the sun? Also having clarity of thought, try to simplify issues. Finally, once you form a view, back yourself and your judgement and never doubt yourself, leave that to others.
17. What motivates you? Winning. I am not a good loser, I’d rather not play. Also, finding different ways to get around problems or to achieve targets, even small things, and doing things people don’t think can be done especially with very little preparation. I’ve learned from a few masters on these things over the years.
18. Best thing about the job: I don’t miss appraisals or bosses. I have had some truly amazing bosses but very few that I’ve really got on with. I tended to do my own thing, though I’ve always enjoyed working with customers and being out on site tours rather than hanging about the office.
19. Best bit of business advice you have ever received: Well, when I started out a few of the older sages at Mobil would always say that reputation is everything and that’s a pretty good lens to view how you conduct yourself in business. Once you lose it you never really get it back.
20. Most recent business achievement of note. I am lucky that the people I work with respect my views. We have done some great interesting stuff at Highways on a few fronts such as fuel, valeting, hot food, and renewables, with more to come hopefully. Also, landing the first Oilfast unmanned site was very satisfying as it was not just the acquisition, I got involved in pretty much everything. There is still lots to be done.
I am also really pleased that I have been able to diversify into some renewable energy and build some great connections (excuse the pun) in that field. I am helping to manage a project building a 20 mile long cable in the Highlands from a power station to a fish farm, which is due to complete next autumn. I think off grid power should be something for this industry to pursue. Electricity demand will only increase, and the grid is not the only answer.
