“I’m really sorry,” he snuffles when I walk into his St James’s Square office, “I’ve got the most terrible cold, I think I picked it up over Christmas — but I’ll do my best.”

He gestures to a chair, and plonks his sizeable frame down opposite, pulling a wodge of tissues out of the box in front of him. Then he talks fluently for nearly two hours, sniffing and blowing his nose continually.

And that, say those who know him, is the way Johnson operates: underselling and overdelivering. It served him well on his way up the British Leyland hierarchy in his early years and has helped him to hold everything together in his current role, chief executive of Inchcape, the world’s largest independent car distributor and retailer.

He may be overseeing booming car sales now, but six years ago, when he took on the top slot, it was not so easy. Some shareholders rubbished his strategy and demanded that he break up the business.

Tough times? “It got very personal,” he nods.

Well, guess who’s smiling now? A share price of 220p in 1999 has grown to £19.64 and Johnson, 57, has completed the transition of Inchcape from colonial conglomerate — trading cars plus business machines, cigarettes, medical products and bottling — to sharply focused car dealer, specialising in premium brands such as Lexus and BMW, and operating in six core countries worldwide.

He has also delivered double-digit profit growth every year, and next month the firm should report another good set of figures, with turnover likely to top £4 billion for the first time.

It has been helped by favourable conditions and growing demand for cars but, as more mature markets flatten out, Inchcape has new ones in eastern Europe and China in its sights. Johnson has proved that “just getting on with it” can pay off.

But crowing about success is not his style. “I always knew this could be a very good company,” he sniffs. “What I am pleased about is that it is the people here who have done it, and it’s a recognition of the strategy of sticking to what we are good at, to what works. It’s also about relationships.”

Johnson, eldest son of a Manchester police sergeant, is very good at relationships — he has to be, dealing with the conflicting demands of selling products from rival manufacturers.

Yet he isn’t a “petrolhead”. He prefers to judge cars on sales potential alone. He is, however, particularly close to certain manufacturers, such as Toyota, and credits the Japanese company’s decision to stick by Inchcape during its radical reorganisation as key to the business’s turnround.

“I have got relationships going back 10 years,” he says. “I would do nothing to damage Toyota because they supported us through difficult times.”

Explore Industry Sectors

• Banking & Finance

• Construction & Property

• Consumer Goods

• Engineering

• Health

• Industrials

• Leisure

• Media

• Natural Resources

• Retailing

• Support Services

• Technology

• Telecoms

• Transport

• Utilities

Times Recommends

• B&B shareholders forced into funding rescue
• John Lewis department store sales plunge 8.3%
• Families turn to credit to cover mortgage bills