My father, Eric Potts, who has died aged 89, was an economist working in engineering and manufacturing businesses, in a period of considerable change for those industries.
He began his career as a graduate apprentice at Rolls-Royce, in Derby, in the early 1960s. Joining the marketing department of the Weir Group, Glasgow, he rose to the top position, before being made marketing director at Weir Polypac, Hartlepool, in 1980.
