John Hardman was born in Liverpool in the very early days of
the Second World War on 8th October 1939, the only boy amongst the
seven children of Harry John Hardman and his wife Gladys (née Dalby). At the
time of his birth the family lived at 60
Utting Avenue East L11 later moving to a semi-detached home in Allerton at 188
Mather Avenue L18. His father pursued a variety of occupations and as an employee
of Vernons was supposedly the ‘founder’ of the treble chance.
John attended Springwood Primary School and the nearby
Quarry Bank High School, a contemporary of John Lennon. Speaking of the future
Beatle he recalled that Lennon did not stand out at school because “to do
that you had to be good at football and cricket”. After studying at
Liverpool University he trained as an accountant and blossomed in business when
working for a subsidiary of RCA producing colour TV tubes at a factory in Skelmersdale.
Although the business eventually folded due to the ‘dumping’ of cheaper Japanese
products on the UK market he prospered with RCA moving to the USA and working
for some years as an international trouble-shooter. Returning to the UK he
worked in another RCA-owned business, Oriel Foods, before joining ASDA as
finance director. He was soon elevated to managing director and then Chairman
and was a key figure in the transformation of the company from a relatively
small provincial business to one of the major supermarket retailers in the
country. He was responsible for bringing Crosby-born George Davis, founder of
Next, into the company to develop the ‘George’ fashion range. He left Asda in
1991 and was subsequently involved in a variety of retail businesses.
