Tobacco.org

Analysis - Smoke signals 

This spring, with equity markets plunging and bank results deep in the red, was probably not the best time for a banker to try giving up smoking – especially when that banker was Eric Daniels, chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group.

But the stress that Mr Daniels felt then, as he grappled with his acquisition of the troubled HBOS and its vast portfolio of rapidly souring lending, was nothing compared with what he was about to go through. . . .

Sure enough, a few weeks ago, he buckled. Colleagues relate with amusement how their boss could be seen scurrying around the office, delving into drawers in which he had hidden stashes of cigarettes.

“Was there anything you wanted, Eric?” asked a bemused Tim Tookey, the bank’s finance director, after Mr Daniels burst into a meeting with financial advisers, rifled through a filing cabinet and headed for the door without uttering a word. The chief simply held up the packet of Marlboro Reds and smiled wryly.

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