The Industry has lost one of its founders & icons

It is with great sadness that the LSi family learnt of the passing of George Hayward on Wednesday 31st May 2023.

George in 1990 was the founder of the PAGE Partnership Catalogue Group with an annual turnover in excess of over £30 million and a healthy membership of over 40 UK distributors. George had run his own successful corporate gift company for many years and in doing so recognised the need for a catalogue that showcased the best products across numerous suppliers & product categories that could be shared by distributors.

To this day PAGE remains the leading catalogue group in the industry, with the best catalogue both on & offline and supporting data & software behind it.

George approached LSi in 1999 and invited Lloyd to join PAGE, a decision Lloyd is quoted as saying "was the single best decision I've ever made in the 28 years LSi has been in existence, LSi went from selling a small range of products to holding a catalogue featuring over 1000 products, it gave LSi access to suppliers we didn't know existed and it helped us significantly in our growth to where we are today."

Lloyd would like to add "I owe George a great deal of gratitude for accepting LSi into the group especially as we only had 5 employees and were the smallest distributor in the group at that time. Becoming a member of PAGE simply changed LSi's outlook overnight. I am proud to have been able to support George and Brian for so many years."

For those who met & knew George he was a larger-than-life character, he lived life to the full, as his son & successor Brian has written "not always politically correct, never woke, often arrogant, always interested in others, passionate and honourable. George lived by the mantra "It's better to live 1 day as a lion rather than 100 years as a sheep" which was accredited to Benito Mussolini - which sort of proves the point (minus the fascism)!"

Having sent our condolences to Brian and to George's wife Christine, Brian replied he had had "literally 100s of messages, glasses are being raised - all over the world, with a few tears shed by tobacconists, cruise companies and restauranteurs!"

What a great full life lived, with no regrets. George will be sadly missed but his legacy lives on.