Tyrrells' boss puts accent on success (From Hereford Times)

Tyrrells' boss puts accent on success

8:00am Monday 24th March 2008 in News By Philip Wilkinson-Jones

A NATIONAL newspaper story that highlighted a Leominster businessman's Herefordshire accent has got the countryside talking.

An article in The Independent, focused on an alleged £40 million takeover of Tyrrells Potato Chips would have been the subject of precious little conversation had it not been for the line: "Mr Chase, who speaks in a broad Herefordshire accent, has been meeting private equity executives in London."

The piece certainly brought a strong response from Tim Relf, Farmers Weekly's Farmlife editor.

He said: "I am not from Herefordshire, but this kind of thing really gets my goat.

"Is the inference that people who have a regional accent aren't generally astute when it comes to business? Or do they just think, perhaps, that people in Herefordshire aren't?

"Either way it's irrelevant at best and downright patronising at worst.

"Why not, while they're at it, run a photo - not of Will Chase himself - but of a man with red cheeks, swigging cider.

"That's what everyone in the countryside looks like, after all, isn't it?

Mr Chase himself said what people wrote about him was up to them.

"It's a matter of opinion really, maybe they are trying to make me look more like a farmer."

The author of the article, The Independent's consumer affairs correspondent Martin Hickman, had not returned calls to the Hereford Times at the time of going to press.