The Cornish business community has lost a powerful and much-admired figure with the death after a short illness of Mark Norton, aged 60, who was best known as head of the Scorrier-based Prima Bakeries Group.
After his takeover of Prima in 2010, it went on to become the county’s fastest-growing bakery, expanding tenfold over the next 14 years.
But Mark had already made a big impression west of the Tamar with his earlier entrepreneurial ventures.
And it was my great good fortune to have met him at the start of his Cornish business life, circa 2000.
We soon began working together, quickly establishing a strong rapport and becoming genuine good friends in the process.
So much so that he was one of the very last clients I “let go” when winding down my PR business in the early 2010s.
I continued to write a fair few words about him from time to time in my various columns and blog posts.
One of my favourites takes me back to Mark’s very early days in Cornwall, and I reproduce it here, first published in January, 2022:--
THANK GOODNESS I NEVER REFUSED A FREE LUNCH!
My dawn diversion into town the other day also included a sighting that took me back 20 years or more and to a major Cornish success story of the past decade.
The “sighting” was of a Prima Bakeries delivery lorry. It reminded me of the time when I of all people – renowned for always putting my stomach first, or so I’m told – almost missed out on a free lunch, and a whole lot more besides.
The year was 2000, give or take, and I was the PR man for Cornwall Association of Tourist Attractions (CATA).
As per usual, I was attending one of their monthly meetings, which always ended with lunch.
Only this time the morning-long meeting was running seriously late. Some of us were even shuffling in our seats as we knew there was still a guest speaker to come, which meant another half-hour or so before nosh time.
My PR business was at its peak, keeping me flat-out busy and acutely aware of time racing by. Whisper it, but I even began to contemplate sneaking away, missing that talk – and that lunch.
The thought didn’t last long, of course, and thank goodness it didn’t.
Despite my own tummy rumbles, I felt sorry for the speaker, but I needn’t have worried – he rapidly had us all hooked with the quality of his presentation.
Mark Norton was launching an excellent new Cornwall holiday guide, which turned out to be the first in a stable of similar Norton publications, including his “Classic Walks” series for Cornwall and elsewhere.
I duly made myself known to him over lunch and I was soon handling all his PR and gaining a very good friend in the process. He was one of the very last clients to whom I bade farewell when closing down my PR business in 2012.
Two years earlier we had met over one of those famous breakfasts (with the reality every bit as good as the reputation) at Smokey Joe’s near Scorrier.
There he briefed me on the big story – for a press release on his takeover of Prima Bakeries.
Since then, this long-established Cornish business has been transformed.
Mark and his team went on to grow the business five-fold, increasing staff from 19 to around 100 and becoming a multiple top-three winner in the Eden World Pasty Championships.
During lockdown, when others were laying off or furloughing staff, Prima actually recruited more to cope with soaring demand for its products.
Quite some success story, then – and yes, I’m so glad I waited for that oh-so-late CATA lunch!
For CornwallLive’s report of Mark’s death, see
https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/boss-well-known-cornish-pasty-9750863
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