Souper-woman Ena Baxter’s passing leaves incredible legacy

Ena Baxter once said she was “just a housewife who enjoys cooking”. She was so much more than that. The matriarch of the Baxters Food Group passed away aged 90 last Thursday.

And although Ena’s daughter Audrey has headed up the soup-to-chutney empire since 1992, much of the family firm’s success is down to Ena’s recipes and sheer driving force.

Gordon Baxter joined the family business in 1946. When wife Ena joined him and Gordon’s brother Ian in 1952, that force took Baxter’s from what had been a small family firm with 11 employees to a global brand.

In 2013, Baxters Food Group had a turnover of £160 million and more than 900 employees.

Although Ena loved to cook and devoted herself to the company Audrey once described the business as the fourth and favourite child of the family there was another, less well-known side to her.

She was a gifted painter who studied at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen. Exhibitions of her work at Duff House in Banff raised thousands of pounds for charity. Along with Gordon, she was patron of National Galleries Scotland and Duff House.

Money raised from the sale of Ena’s paintings went to the Gordon And Ena Baxter Foundation. Kay Jackson, the foundation’s manager, recalls her time with the couple.

“I worked with Mr and Mrs Baxter for 23 years so I have lots of wonderful memories of them. It’s been an honour to be part of their final chapter.

“Both were real characters and together they made a unique partnership,” she says. “Throughout their lives, they made a small army of friends and business associates across the world and Mr Baxter remained a correspondent to many right up until he died at the grand age of 95,” she says.

“As Mrs Ena (as she was known to employees) took a back seat from the business, she loved spending time in her studio and was less keen to spend hours in her kitchen.

“I fondly recall her giving me STRICT instructions on several occasions to ‘make sure and keep Gordon busy in the office’. Yes, that was even at his grand age of 90, so that she could finish painting a dahlia, or an iris she’d picked from the garden that morning.”

The Baxters’ story could all have been so different. Perfectionist Ena, driven by the firm’s motto of “Be different, be better”, was on the brink of giving up creating the “world’s finest soup”, as she wasn’t happy with her efforts. Then she saw a film about Marie Curie, the Polish scientist who endured repeated disappointments before discovering radium.

Ena later explained: “I left the cinema and went home determined to have one more try and that time I won.”

It’s little wonder she got there eventually. She was a talented cook and said she could tell exactly what was in a dish just by tasting it.

“It’s a bit like making perfume but instead of a nose, I’ve got a mouth,” she explained.

Thanks to Ena’s recipes, Baxters is now a household name in many parts of the world, including America, Australia and Canada.

Perhaps it’s no surprise that the company has been the subject of around 200 takeover bids every one rejected. The company did, however, acquire Fray Bentos in 2011 and since 2013 has produced the WeightWatchers range. Even as they grew older, both Gordon and Ena had immense energy.

“I have so many memories of my time shared with both Mrs Ena and Mr Gordon. When they were more able, we used to travel around the countryside of the North East and give talks on ‘The Baxter Story’.”

From creating that first soup, there was no stopping her and “Mrs Ena” even went on to star in TV adverts to promote her homely products in the 1970s.

She may have appeared like a cuddly granny, but underneath that couthy exterior lay a hardworking businesswoman.

Not only did Gordon once say that he and Ena had “divorced about 10 times” while building the business, he also described their life as “blo**dy slavery”.

Ena herself added that there were times she would weep at her kitchen table and nights when she would crawl to bed so exhausted that she could not even summon up the energy to get undressed.

Little wonder, then, that during any little spare time she had, Mrs Ena found relaxation in an easel and paints.

The Gordon and Ena Jackson Foundation has covered many different projects including arts, care and health, education and sport and the good works of Gordon and Ena are set to continue.

“Last year, the charity awarded almost £100,000 to worthy causes and charitable projects including Leonard Cheshire Disability and University of Aberdeen Medical Research,” says Kay Jackson, Foundation Manager.

The work of the Foundation will continue.

“Mr and Mrs Baxter’s legacy will live on for years to come with the Foundation and I am delighted to be driving this forward with their grandson, James,” Kay continues. “We are exploring initiatives with Alzheimer Scotland and the Playlist for Life Project founded by Sally Magnusson. We are planning many other projects, too.”