Obituary: James Pringle, businessman who turned round a failing mill by cashing in on the tourist industry Born: 5 September, 1924 in Brora. Died: 29 February, 2012, in Perth, aged 87. James Pringle took a small family textile business that was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, and turned it into a multi-million pound success story by targeting tourists and pioneering the idea of mill shops that sold direct to the public. In his early days on Skye in the 1950s, Pringle visited all the local hotels and guest-houses, persuading them to send visitors to his mill, and he employed a man to meet ferries and hand out leaflets to passengers as they disembarked. He was also instrumental in setting up the Skye tourist board, one of the first in Scotland. The company expanded beyond its original bases in Inverness and Skye. James Pringle, who was always known as Hamish, opened the Clan Tartan Centre in Aviemore, where visitors could research their family tartan and get a print-out, and acquired premises in Edinburgh and Wales. There were mill tours and visitor centres and the philosophy proved so successful that the company ended up buying in most of the items it was selling in its shops. The business was sold to the Edinburgh Woollen Mill when Pringle retired. The name James Pringle has been retained, both as a brand and on several shops, including stores in the Royal Mile in Edinburgh and Glasgow's Buchanan Street - although there have been several clashes over the years over the use of the name Pringle. The James Pringle company was founded by Pringle's father, who was also called James, and it has no connection with the Pringle of Scotland knitwear brand, whose origins are in the Borders and for whom Tilda Swinton has modelled. The Borders Pringle dates back to 1815, whereas The Edinburgh Woollen Mill claims James Pringle goes all the way back to 1789, which it does - sort of. James Creek Pringle was born in Brora, where his father was manager of Hunters Woollen Mill. The family originally came from the Borders and had worked in textiles for generations. The name Creek was a bastardisation of the Dutch name Kriek. His grandfather met his grandmother after going to Flanders to work. James was the youngest in the family. Shortly after he was born, his father bought the Holm Woollen Mills in Inverness, which some sources date from 1771. The mills supplied textile that was used to strengthen the Caledonian Canal embankment and stop it leaking. During the Second World War, the military's demands for blankets kept the mill going, while James Pringle jnr served as a signalman in the Royal Artillery in France and Germany. After the war, James Pringle senior bought another mill on Skye and his son went there as manager. It produced carpet yarn with wool that arrived by steamer, but with transport costs rising the mill was running at a loss. However, Pringle realised that Skye was beginning to attract significant numbers of tourists - he had good reason, as he met his wife Nita when she went there on holiday. After considering how he could tap into the tourist boom, Pringle opened a mill shop selling tartan, tweed and knitwear, an initiative that would provide a template for the entire industry. Subsequently, he added a coffee shop and encouraged bus parties. He also oversaw the opening of a mill shop in Inverness. But the company as a whole was struggling and the family was bitterly divided. The business was on the point of collapse when Pringle managed to persuade the Clydesdale Bank to back his rescues plans. Installed as managing director, he continued to expand the retail and tourist side of the business. He cut back on several stages in the manufacturing process, but kept on the weaving operations as an essential part of the tourist attraction. The mill shop was now selling knitwear that came from the Borders mills and other items bought from elsewhere, though Pringle also acquired the Ferguson & Rippin factory in Glasgow, which made tweed skirts. The company was importing hundreds of bolts of yarn from Yorkshire to weave into tartan and was selling kilts in bulk to Japan. Tartan travel rugs were also hugely popular. In the 1980s, it took over former carting premises in Bangor Road in Leith, Edinburgh, and operated it as the James Pringle Woollen Mill, though it was essentially a warehouse selling tartan, tweed and knitwear to tourists. Looking to expand with a similar operation in England, it wound up acquiring the old railway station in Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, the Welsh village with the longest name in Europe, commonly abbreviated to Llanfair PG. It opened a factory, shop and restaurant there. In his spare time, Pringle was a keen bridge player and was one of the founders of the Highland Bridge Congress, one of the biggest in Scotland. He retired in 1989 and moved from Inverness to Broughty Ferry. Recently he had moved to Pitlochry. He is survived by his wife, three sons Euan, Niall and Malcolm and four grandchildren.