and Agrochemicals Divisions accounted for 60 per cent of the company’s
turnover; the remainder being generated by its Pharmaceutical,
Horticulture, and Scientific Equipment Divisions.
On his accession to power Kerridge immediately set about a programme
of financial and business restructuring. Cost-cutting measures were intro-
duced right across the business. The company’s headquarters were relo-
cated – with half the number of staff – from London’s Mayfair to more
modest premises back in the Suffolk coastal town of Ipswich. In the divi-
sions, finance directors were appointed and tighter financial controls intro-
duced, to underline the fact that senior managers’ objectives were tied to
profit. Return on capital employed became the definitive performance
measure.^2 Within three years the fertilizer and agrochemicals businesses
had been revamped and – to the amazement of onlookers – promptly
divested. The cost cutting continued, but alongside it a programme of
reinvestment and growth through acquisitions to build the remaining
businesses.
The Pharmaceutical Division was profitable, but was generally regarded
as being over-dependent on one product, the anti-asthma drug, Intal. Intal
was a truly innovative anti-asthma treatment, first launched in the UK in
the late 1960s. Existing treatments simply attempted to ameliorate the
asthma attack; Intal, on the other hand, was a preventative used to treat
background inflammation in the patients’ respiratory systems. By the mid-
1970s Intal accounted for 60 per cent of Fisons’ pharmaceutical sales of £4
million a year, becoming one of the top 15 selling drugs in the UK by the
end of the decade.^3 In 1982, the web of UK patents protecting Intal’s base
compound (sodium cromoglycate) began to expire. Overseas patents had
longer to run, but they too would start to unravel before the end of the
decade. Fortunately, a much-needed reprieve was secured with the devel-
opment of an aerosol-administered version of the drug in the mid-1980s.
The breakthrough bought an extension of Intal’s patent protection.
Moreover, it made the drug more accessible for children and the elderly,
opening up a whole new sector of the respiratory market. During this time
new applications were found for other derivatives of sodium cromogly-
cate, resulting in a batch of new specialist anti-allergy treatments; Norcrom
for food allergies, Opticrom for eyes, with Lomusol and Rynacrom for
nasal allergies. Around the world sales of anti-allergy drugs were on the
increase, and a renewed effort from the sales force produced a marked
improvement in Fisons’ market share both at home and abroad.
Meanwhile, a severe pruning of the Scientific Equipment Division
resulted in the closure of some of its manufacturing operations and the
shedding of a third of its labour force. It was decided that from now on the
division would concentrate on its strengths: distribution expertise, mar-
keting, and aftersales service. To reduce its dependence on the UK, it
expanded overseas, particularly into developing countries where new lab-
The referral and influence market domains 269