WHEN Douglas Morrison takes his seat behind the imposing desk in his office in ABP's Ocean Gate Southampton headquarters, he will be entitled to feel he has arrived after a 37-year journey.

A bustling, fun-loving Scot, he has devoted his entire career to Associated British Ports, gradually climbing the greasy pole from lowly tea boy to the board of directors.

Although he was already a director at Hull & Goole, it is Southampton that is the "jewel" in Associated British Ports' crown.

"The chief executive Bo Lerenius asked me to come to Southampton and I was only too delighted to," he said.

"In our terms, Southampton has always been regarded as the jewel in the crown and to come here is a great honour."

The father of two takes over the reins from current port director Andrew Kent on April 1 and says he has graduated to the "sexy" side of the ports business.

He said: "It is not the biggest in terms of tonnage, but this is very high-profile in our company. It is cruise ships, cars and containers and it is a very different business. It is a vital driver behind the success of the company.

"To come to Southampton is a great thrill. This is the sexy side of the business. I was talking to children at a vocational education event in Hull and they would say airports are sexy and ports are seen as a bit dirty, but Southampton is different - it's the sexy side, and that's why they picked me, obviously! It's high-profile and a great location.

"I hate to sound like an estate agent but it is all about location, location, location. If you were starting again with a blank map of the UK, you would build a port where Southampton is now."

A Glasgow Rangers fan and a keen golfer, the 53-year-old developed a taste for Hull City FC during his stint at the helm of Hull & Goole port.

"I go to watch Hull regularly but it might become Southampton. The big game for me would be if Southampton were relegated and Hull were promoted."

An ABP man through and through, Doug began right at the bottom in the port of his hometown, Ayr.

"I started straight from school in 1968. My first job was as an office junior. I had to light the fires in the morning so the office was nice and warm for when the important people like the clerks came in. I had to call everybody "mister" and make the tea. That was my first ever job.

"When you start at 16 and you walk into a port and it's cold - it's Scotland, remember - and the wind and rain are battering your face, you think you are not going to stick at it. But your career moves on, although I was quite late in ABP terms when I became a senior manager, which was in 1998, when I became port manager at Ayr and Troon.

"That was a world away from this. I remember when I first came to Hull and drove around, I was thinking, 'Oh my God, this is huge. I'll never remember all this, and I have the same feeling here. It just takes a few months to get to grips with it all."

Like the rest of the region's shipping community, he was stunned by the government's decision to veto plans for a new terminal at Dibden Bay.

He said: "I personally believed that it was going to go ahead. In the shipping community, which is tight-knit, everyone but everyone said this has to happen. We were amazed by the decision and I think it was a lousy decision."

So does he think Dibden Bay is permanently sunk, or could it be resurrected?

"That's the six million dollar question, but to be honest it is not on the radar screen," he said. "We can still grow this business without Dibden. The pace of growth will be slower, obviously.

"I can't see anything happening in the foreseeable future, but don't ask me about 20 years in the future. As a company we have moved on. Ultimately what happens in Southampton will be decided by the outcome of the public inquiries into Bathside and Shellhaven.

"I think when it came to Dibden Bay, people didn't really understand how important it was for the city. I think most people wanted it but didn't make their voices heard. The port is absolutely vital to the economy of the city and maybe that message isn't getting through."

Improving links between the city and its port, which provides employment for up to 13,000 people, is another key aim.

"It is not about the number of people we employ, it is the number of people that work in the port directly and indirectly, and that is why it is so vital that the port succeeds. We want to prove that a city like Southampton can grow and that the port can be a vital driver of that. The reason why the city is where it is today is because of the port.

"I want the city and the port to get closer than they have ever been. Yes, the port causes some congestion and people might get frustrated with that, but it is so vital."

Once settled in the new home now being built for him and wife Margaret in Chandler's Ford, Douglas plans to focus on Southampton's core strengths to achieve the needed growth without the driving power Dibden Bay would have provided.

"I say let's concentrate on the three Cs - containers, cars and cruises," he said.

"Southampton is the number one cruise port in the UK. Let's see if we can get more and more cruise calls. I would love to see a fourth cruise terminal built in Southampton. I am sure we could get that if we can get new calls and more visits from existing callers. It would be nice to see it.

"We are the number one for the import and export of cars in the UK and I would like to see that business grow and see how we can facilitate that. We might need to build more multi-storey car parks.

"I want to work closely with Southampton Container Terminal. We have had a lot of bad publicity about container congestion in the port and we need to see if there's anything we can do about that. We have just given them an extra four acres of land, so there are things we can do."

Those chilly early experiences on the "shop floor" inform his management style today, which he characterises as "friendly".

He is determined to be known by all his 200 staff as just Doug.

"I don't want to be seen as the big boss," he said. "I have no airs and graces about me.

"To begin with on the first day, I'll meet the staff, have a look around the port and let my face be seen. One thing I will insist on is that it is all on first name terms. I want Tracy downstairs to call me Doug, not Mr Morrison. That goes back to when I had to light fires and call everybody mister. When the chief executive comes here we all call him Bo, so it's a lead from the top.

"I just want to be seen as a guy here doing a job, albeit an important job, but no one special - just someone who has been very fortunate to land a great job.

"If people enjoy their work, if they come in with a smile, you get more from them. A hell of a lot of life is taken up with work and if you don't enjoy it, how do you motivate yourself?"