John Lennon and George Harrison resigned their positions on the board of Hayling Supermarkets Ltd on 5 September 1969.
Lennon and Harrison had both invested in a supermarket on Creek Road on Hayling Island in Hampshire, off the south coast of England, in 1965. The shop was run by Pete Shotton, Lennon’s childhood friend, and his wife Beth.
I rang up John’s accountants, told them about the supermarket, and asked them to check the place out. A few days later, they returned the verdict that it was a fine business, and that John and I could hardly hope for a better investment. The upshot was that by Easter 1965 I was already launched on my unanticipated new career, running a supermarket on a little island that I hadn’t even heard of four months earlier.One of the best things about Hayling Island, from my standpoint, was that it was less than an hour’s drive from Weybridge. For the next several years, I was to spend almost all of my free weekends staying with John (unless, of course, he happened to be out of town on Beatle business). He even designated a special room for me at Kenwood: the Blue Room, so called for its uniformly blue wallpaper, furnishings, and decorations.
John Lennon: In My Life
Shotton later became a manager of The Beatles’ Apple Boutique, before becoming the first CEO of Apple Corps. His departure from The Beatles’ circle coincided with the arrival of Allen Klein and a streamlining of the Apple staff.