Portaloo inventor dies aged 78

Tuesday 01 April 1997 18:02 EST

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The inventor of portable buildings that revolutionised the construction industry has died. So successful were Donald Shepherd's Portakabin and Portaloo that his Portakabin Group of Companies now boasts a pounds 70m-a-year turnover and employs more than 1,000 staff. Mr Shepherd, 78, retired less

than a year ago as chairman after 63 years in the construction business.

In 1978, Portakabin received the Queen's award for Export Achievement. In 1982, at the end of the Falklands War, the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, announced 600 Portakabins were being sent out to help form a new garrison there.

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