Alfred McAlpine have sold their Welsh Slate quarries at Penrhyn, Cwt-y-Bugail, Blaenau Ffestiniog and Pen-yr-Orsedd to Northern Irish-based businessman Kevin Lagan for £31million.

Kevin Lagan heads the £300million Lagan Group set up by the family more than 40 years ago. The Belfast Telegraph rated the group 30th in their Top 100 companies in the province last year and Lagan Construction were named Civil Engineering Com-pany of the Year in the Plant, Construction and Quarry Awards.

The sale of the quarries comes as Alfred McAlpine are being bought by construction giants Carillion.

Alan Smith remains Managing Director of Welsh Slate. He was recruited early last year to take over after accounting irregularities led to fraud allegations against the previous top management of the business.

Kevin Lagan says of his acquisition: "This is a fantastic opportunity to buy a business with extraordinary assets, a proven track record and enormous growth potential.

"We have wide-ranging business interests in construction, property development and building materials, both in the UK and across the world, and the Welsh Slate business will complement that portfolio, offering the sector a versatile, traditional product range.

"I'm delighted the existing management team has agreed to remain with us as we take the company through the next stage in its development. I look forward to working with them to build on both the success of the company and the rennaissance in the use of Welsh Slate."

An off-the-shelf company called Rigcycle was used as the vehicle to buy the quarries. Both Alan Smith and Welsh Slate Finance Director Nicki Oakes are minor shareholders in the company. The quarries will continue to trade under the Welsh Slate name and it might reasonably be expected that the company name will change to that before long.

There were several parties interested in taking over the business and it had also been speculated that a management buy-out was on the cards.

It is a measure of Alan Smith's success in turning the business round that all those serious about buying the operation wanted the existing management team to remain with it.

When the accounting irregularities at Welsh Slate that led to Alan's appointment were discovered last year, the Alfred McAlpine board said it would cut £13million off the group's pre-tax profit. The McAlpine group share price fell from 600p to 430p. The current takeover bid by Carillion values the company at 585p a share.

The previous Managing Director of Welsh Slate, Chris Law, was proud that the opening of a new £6million roofing slate factory at Penrhyn in 2006 had not resulted in the loss of any of the 400 jobs in the business.

When Alan Smith was appointed he cut 160 jobs, closed the architectural products side of the business to concentrate on roof slate and aggregate production, and mothballed the Cwt-y-Bugail quarry.

As it turned out, Cwt-y-Bugail only stayed mothballed for about four months and was already back in production by the time the business was sold.

The slate from the quarry was always available because there were sufficient stocks to meet demand during the four months that production ceased.

"I had a business plan for going back into Cwt-y-Bugail and I'm a year ahead of that," says Alan. "Customer demand has dictated we've gone back in there."

When he became MD he started a multi-million investment in Penrhyn quarry and told customers that the large discounts they had received would come to an end.

His intention was to get the business breaking even by the end of 2007 and back in profit in 2008. He says it was profitable in the final quarter of last year.

He says of the acquisition: "Basically the business is going to grow and prosper. It genuinely is a good thing. The important thing is that the uncertainty has gone."

Alfred McAlpine also operate Hilltop slate quarry in the USA, which is being sold separately to a different buyer. As we went to press the sale was reaching its conclusion.