Sir Jim Milne was born on Boxing Day 1940 at the Home Farm of Tullos, Aberdeen, the youngest of nine children.
He left school at 14 with no qualifications and joined agricultural engineers Barclay, Ross and Hutchison as a message boy, working his way up to the drawing office.
There he saw how quickly farm machinery rusted and decided that glassfibre was the answer. In the 1960s he launched North East Glassfibre Works from the family’s former mushroom shed, an old RAF hut. It grew into Aberglen Group, which had 21 divisions and around 1,000 staff.
When the Iranian and Nigerian markets collapsed, Aberglen went into receivership in March 1980. Six months later he started again with four employees, and Balmoral won its first contracts from BP and Shell.
Balmoral became the world leader in deepwater buoyancy. Landmarks included the $50 million Girassol contract off Angola in 1999 and three Queen’s Awards for International Trade.
After a High Court defeat in 2006, he rebuilt the offshore business from scratch at the age of 66. Within weeks it had won a £12 million BP contract, and that marked the start of the most successful period in the Group’s history.
He went on to found Balmoral Tanks, which now has manufacturing in South Yorkshire and, from 2026, Ohio.
He also developed Balmoral Business Park, backed Blaze Manufacturing Solutions and ACE Winches to protect local jobs, and in 2024 bought the Marcliffe and neighbouring Woodbank.
From 2020 the Group set new records for sales and profits year after year, and annual sales passed £200 million across 55 countries.
In 2026 Balmoral Comtec was sold to Freudenberg Flow Technologies, and the Group became a family investment office.
It invests in high potential businesses and puts its profits back into community and charitable causes. In November 2026 Balmoral was named in The Sunday Times Fast 50, and Sir Jim received its Entrepreneurial Spirit award.
In 1997 he co-founded Friends of ANCHOR, which supports cancer and haematology patients in the North-east, and he chaired it from the start. Balmoral covers all of the charity’s fundraising costs, so every penny donated goes to the cause.
Each Christmas he walked the wards in a Santa suit, handing out gifts to patients and staff. His Milne Family Foundation gives more than £2 million a year to over 60 partners.
He was appointed CBE in 1994 and Deputy Lieutenant of Aberdeen City in 2007, and he was knighted in 2022 for services to business and charity. He held honorary doctorates from RGU, the University of Aberdeen and Edinburgh Napier.
He wore his kilt to the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston for more than 40 years, and he opened every pitch with the same line: “I’m a peer fairmer’s loon fae Aberdeen.” Asked at 80 why he was still working, he said simply: “I love it.”
He is survived by his wife Gillian, his children Sarah-Jane, Caroline, Cameron and Ewan, and five grandchildren. His first wife, Jill, died of cancer in 1994.