Beattie was a cleaner at Ingram's Textiles. In 1990, while doing her early morning rounds she called at Mike Baldwin's office, interrupting a row between Mike and sales manager Ralph Dobson. When Dobson stormed off, Beattie jokingly asked Mike if it was something he had for breakfast, to which a wry Mike replied that he was right off his food. Later that day, Dobson resigned from the firm due to Jackie Ingram's decision to run the factory in her late husband Peter's stead, which Dobson viewed as a recipe for disaster.