Unwin's investment in Wrekin pays off

David Unwin is on a mission to put Wrekin back on its feet. After being effectively given the group for free, he has shovelled in £11m to cover the costs of mistakes made by the previous management team and has already put the business back into profit.

The firm's latest interim results show a pre-tax profit of £1.2m and Wrekin is on track to hit a £2.5m profit in the full year, he said.

What came to light this week was the size of the loss that Wrekin suffered in the 12 months prior to Unwin's £50m-a-year turnover Tamar Group stepping forward as a buyer six months ago. From a turnover of £100m in the financial year to 31 March 2007, Wrekin suffered a pre-tax loss of £9m.

Tamar has stepped in because it was in need of a construction presence. It has seven divisions and three of these have an interest in the construction market:

an aggregate recycling joint venture with St Gobain.

HCL Equipment - a handling solutions provider with activities in gypsum extraction, opencast coal and landfill.

Equatrek - involved in the purchase and sale of heavy construction equipment, including the export globally of both new and second-hand equipment.

"I'd known Wrekin for 20 years," said Unwin. "At the start, I made an offer but Wrekin didn't want to talk as it was in negotiations to sell to a small venture capital company and anyway Wrekin thought we weren't big enough.

"So I asked what their net profit was and the answer was that they made a loss. When I told them we had access to £30m that made them prick up their ears."

Tamar Group is in line to make a £10m pre-tax profit in the 12 months to December 2007, added Unwin.