Jim Ratcliffe, chairman of Ineos, will not enjoy the limelight bestowed on his petrochemicals group today as staff at its Grangemouth oil refinery threaten to go on strike. Mr Ratcliffe, 56, is often described as publicity-shy and low-profile, but this has not stopped him masterminding some audacious business moves to propel his chemical business into the big league in less than a decade.

Mr Ratcliffe’s past experience of brinkmanship should also serve him well in the present dispute. In 2001, Ineos threatened to close its chlorine plant in Runcorn, Cheshire, unless it received a government grant. Two years later the Government agreed, handing over £50 million.

Mr Ratcliffe, a qualified accountant and engineer, worked in marketing and accounts for Esso, Beechams and Courtauld before joining Advent, a private equity house. He led a management buyout of BP’s specialist chemicals division before setting up Ineos in 1998. He has since built the company by buying businesses from big players. His £5.1 billion acquisition of Innovene, BP’s petrochemical business in 2005, quadrupled Ineos’s turnover. Ineos is now the third-largest petrochemicals group, with 68 manufacturing facilities in 17 countries and 14,500 employees. It is the largest producer of acetone, phenol and car air-conditioning fluids. Last year it led the Sunday Times KPMG Top Track 100 list of Britain’s private companies by sales.

Mr Ratcliffe, who lives near Ineos’s Hampshire headquarters, owns two thirds of the business. Staff own the rest. Ineos’s startling growth lifted Mr Ratcliffe from No 45 to No 10 in last year’s Sunday Times Rich List, with an estimated £3.3 billion fortune. He has been described as the chemical industry’s answer to Lakshmi Mittal, the consolidator of the steel industry.

Mr Ratcliffe may have a private jet, but acquaintances say that he is very down-to-earth. He lists skiing and garden tractors among his interests.