One urgent problem facing Tony O'Reilly as he faces retirement from Heinz is the loss of a company jet. It is a very long time since Tony was in an airport check-in queue - and he has no intention of starting now. He raised the matter last year with Liam Healy, chief executive of Independent Newspapers. Our sources say Healy was distinctly unenthusiastic, saying that executive jets were all very well for a multi-billion dollar food company but not for a modestly-sized newspaper group.
Shortly before Christmas, according to our sources, Healy was summoned to a meeting with O'Reilly in Pittsburgh. He flew with Aer Lingus to John F. Kennedy International in New York where he was met by an emissary of O'Reilly, who apologised and said that, due to circumstances outside his control, O'Reilly had been obliged to switch the venue for the meeting to San Francisco. A ticket to San Francisco was produced but Healy had to take a taxi to La Guardia Airport for the internal flight.
After the meeting, O'Reilly mentioned that a problem had arisen with Wilson and Horton, Independent Newspapers' subsidiary in New Zealand, which urgently needed Healy's attention. So Healy packed his bags for Auckland . . .
Quidnunc hears that Independent Newspapers is now likely to acquire an executive jet, possibly in collaboration with Waterford Wedgewood, another company of which O'Reilly is chairman.
Footnote: The legendary American investor Warren Buffett, (shares in insurance companies, Coca-Cola, ABC television, the IT]Washington Post etc, etc), railed for years in the annual report of his holding company, Berkshire Hathaway, against the wastefulness of corporate jets. However, he recently acquired one and honestly named it The ndefensible.