Leading North-east farmer, John (Jack) Lind, Overton of Keithfield, Methlick, who had extensive farming interests in both Aberdeenshire and Poland and as chief executive in the 1980s of farmers’ co-operative, Aberdeen and Northern Marts (ANM), master-minded the development of Thainstone Agricultural Centre, Inverurie, has died at the age of 81 after a short illness.

Mr Lind, an entrepreneurial farmer and businessman, is credited with being the inspiration behind the Thainstone development with the vision to create an agricultural centre for the North-east, incorporating the most modern state-of-the-art auction centre in Europe.

The investment of £6.5m was huge for the time but the cost was mitigated by the largest grant ever awarded up to that time by the EU’s FEOGA fund for agricultural development.

Mr Lind was appointed chief executive of ANM, now ANM Group, in 1985 after several years as a non-executive director with a mandate to carry out a whole-scale modernisation of what was then an ailing business.

The closure of smaller uneconomic marts throughout the North-east caused considerable angst among members of the co-operative who mounted angry protests about the closure of their local marts. But the board of directors were clear that this action was needed to ensure the future of the company. The closures started before Mr Lind’s appointment as chief executive and continued under his stewardship.

Thainstone Centre was officially opened in January, 1990, by the then Secretary of State for Scotland, Malcolm Rifkind.

Other developments at the time included the successful branding and marketing of meat subsidiary, Scotch Premier Meat, for both the home and export market and the introduction in 1989 of Europe’s first commercial electronic marketing system for both livestock and grain, following the acquisition of the European rights for the pioneering OLEX electronic auction system developed in Canada by the Ontario Livestock Exchange.

With his mission completed, Mr Lind resigned in 1990 to concentrate on his own family farming business, J and WF Lind, which he ran in partnership with his late brother, William, and is now run by his son, John.

The long established dairy operation was discontinued in 2015 with a move to beef cattle breeding and the establishment of a suckler herd of Stabiliser cattle. However, the leading enterprise on the farm had always been the production of high-grade seed potatoes and Mr Lind was a significant player in the sector, establishing the UK’s first commercial micro-propagation laboratory for seed potatoes in 1979.

In 1996, Lind Agriculture was established and through its Polish subsidiary, leased large previously state-owned farms for large-scale high-grade seed potato production, based on seed from the Linds' farms in Scotland.

The project was initially driven by the absence of quality seed for the production of ware potatoes for crisp manufacture in Poland and substantial modernisation and adaptation of the acquired facilities was required. The businesss expanded to become Europe’s largest privately-owned seed potato producer, with a substantial export business.

Graduating with a BSc in agriculture from Aberdeen University in 1962, Mr Lind’s first job was as an inspector for two years with the Department of Agriculture for the West Coast and Inner Hebrides, based in Oban.

He returned to the North-east in 1965 when appointed a director of Strathearn Farms, a Spiller’s farming subsidiary with a large pig finishing operation in Aberdeenshire.

His entrepreneurial spirit came to the fore when he led a management buy-out of the operation, diversifying into a large dairy operation and establishing the successful animal feed company, Fochel Mills, which was sold to Dalgety in 1987.

He was also a founder-director and vice-chairman of the potato marketing co-operative, Aberdeen Seed Potato Organisation (ASPO) from 1979 to 2003, and a director of the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute from 1990 to 1997.

What he described as a small cottage industry, Agricultural Produce Exchange (Europe), or APEX, was established in 1992 and its great success was the electronic auctioning of virtually the whole of Northern Ireland’s milk production from 1994 to 2011 following the dissolution of the milk boards in the UK.

In 1994, Mr Lind was appointed to the main board of Grampian Country Foods, to head up the acquisition of McIntosh Donald, of Portlethen, and Welsh Country Foods, establishing the group’s red meat division, where he became chairman.

Modest and unassuming, perhaps his greatest strength was his skill in the selection of staff and many of the managers he appointed to run his various businesses appreciated the opportunity he gave them to further their careers.

At the time of his death, Mr Lind was looking forward to attending a reunion of former directors of ANM to be hosted next month by the present board to mark the group’s 150th anniversary.

His funeral will be private at his own request and he is survived by his five children, plus grandchildren and great grandchildren.