Man of steel
A Rovers Return?
I went to work for Walker Steel, first in Yorkshire, then
at the offices in Guide, just outside Blackburn. I had 15
great years there, until the business was sold in 1990
and then I stayed on to see a project through.
Jack asked me to join the board at Blackburn Rovers
when he bought it. It was his vision to put a bit back
into the community and give the club a leg up. We
had amazing times, winning the Premier League , the
Worthington Cup, bouncing back after relegation and
playing in Europe. I left the board when Venky’s bought
the club, and obviously it’s heartbreaking what’s
happened since.
There’s only one Jack Walker
Jack Walker was remarkable. His business philosophy
was to be decisive, to make a decision. It might be
the wrong one, but as long as you learn from it, it’s
always better than no decision at all. I never worked
directly for him, he had a board he liaised with, but my
marrying his daughter got me access and I picked up so
much from him as a result of that.
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As long as I’m pulling my weight, nobody can complain.
I didn’t change, I was always the same – working hard,
getting the job done, looking for opportunities for the
business. British Steel asked me to stay on after the sale,
which must have said something about what they thought
I brought to the business.
Success from waste
I was barred from operating in the steel stockholding
business, so I was looking around for something
new. I thought a new approach to waste management
presented a business opportunity.
We started with 8 employees in Blackburn, by 1996 we
acquired Quercia, a 76 acre sand quarry and landfill
site in Chorley. We then added a materials’ recycling
facility at Chorley and in early 2010 Neales Direct
Services was established specifically for contracts with
Local Authorities. Following on from this we then went
into facilities management winning clients like InBev
and BNFL at Sellafield. We sold the business in 2012 to
Cementir, an Italian conglomerate.