A director of iconic confectionery company Lees died after being hit by a tree in his Inverness-shire garden.
Klaus Perch-Nielson, 80, was killed when a heavy branch was blown from a tree in last week’s high winds as he was working in the garden at Berryfield House, Lentran.
Mr Perch-Nielson was on the board of Lees Foods, based in Coatbridge and makers of the famous coconut covered ‘Snowball’ and ‘Macaroon Bar’ range.
He and a business partner took over the company in the early 1990s. In 2015, it had a turnover of £26million.
Yesterday, Lees chief executive Clive Miquel paid tribute to his colleague.
“It has come as such a shock. I was only speaking to him about a couple of business matters that morning.
“He was so fit and healthy, and still had much to offer the company. He was a regular attender at board meetings and had a huge enthusiasm for Lees.
“He will be greatly missed and our thoughts are with Lynda and the entire family.”
In a varied career, Mr Perch-Nielson was the part founder of Moray Firth Maltings, an investor in olive grows in Victoria, a farm in New South Wales and a Tasmanian vineyard.
He was born in 1937 in Denmark where after national service in the Danish Royal Guard Regiment moved to the UK in the early 1960s.
He was taken on first as a farm worker, then manager for another Dane before making the jump to malting.
He is survived by his wife Lynda and three children Anna, Niklaus and Ingrid and seven grandsons.
Last night, Mrs Perch-Nielson said: “He was a wonderful father and a wonderful husband, he was an extraordinary man.
“He was a friend to everyone whose life he touched, he was immediately their friend no matter who they were.
“He was as happy talking to the man who came to clear the drains as he would be with Lord Lovat. That was very Danish of him. We had a wonderful life.”
Daughter Anna added: “Everyone we have spoken to has been devastated, they haven’t said “oh I am sorry” – they have been speechless.”
Mrs Perch-Nielson’s brother John Robin Bound referred to him affectionately as “the Great Dane,” adding “he was my brother-in-law and best friend, a very bright light has gone out.
“He was great, great company, a great sense of humour. He was a great party man, always entertaining, never had a bad word for anyone.
“He could talk to anybody, had time for anybody, always interested in people, their lives – he was interested in everything. Dynamic is a good way to describe him.”
A police spokesman said: “Police attended the sudden death of a man at a property in the Lentran area near Inverness on the afternoon of Thursday, March 15.
“There are no suspicious circumstances and a report has been sent to the procurator fiscal as is standard procedure.
“Our thoughts are with his family at this time.”
