Veteran boss goes after nearly 40 years at roofing specialist

Roofing and fa莽ade specialist Prater is parting company with its veteran chief executive as part of a wider rejig by its German owner.

The company, which has been owned by Lindner for the past 11 years, said Richard Unwin was leaving under plans to 鈥渃omplete the integration of Lindner Prater into the heart of the Lindner Group鈥�.

Unwin, who turned 55 in February, joined the company as a teenager in 1983 and has been with it ever since. He became operations director in 2004, managing director nine years later and then chief of Lindner鈥檚 UK sector in 2014, taking a spot on the board of the German firm鈥檚 facades business Lindner Fassaden.

unwin

Richard Unwin has been with the business since 1983 when he joined as a teenager

Staff were told last Thursday that Unwin was off and in a statement the firm confirmed to 黑洞社区 he was stepping down and leaving his role.

It added: 鈥淭he Group Board recognise Richard鈥檚 commitment and professionalism and greatly appreciate the dedication he has shown over the past 37 [sic] years on the journey from Prater Roofing through to the Lindner Prater of today.鈥�

The firm said Gavin Hamblett, who has been with the business 16 years, 鈥渨ill continue to lead Lindner Prater as managing director鈥� having been first appointed to the role in 2015.

It added: 鈥淢artin Schmidhuber will join the UK Board to represent the Lindner Group.鈥� Schmidhuber is a former boss of the parent company鈥檚 operations in China. The firm said: 鈥淭here will be no change to the day to day delivery of our projects and we remain focused on technical excellence and innovation.鈥�

In its last set of results filed at Companies House, Prater said it racked up a 拢9.4m pre-tax loss in 2020 from a 拢2m profit in 2019.

Prater, whose projects in the past few years have included the Stirling Prize-winning Bloomberg building in the City of London as well as the new No1 Court at Wimbledon, both completed by Sir Robert McAlpine, said turnover slipped 30% to 拢65m.

Mace_Sky Central_漏Hufton+Crow_020

Source: Hufton+Crow

The roof on Prater鈥檚 Sky Central scheme is having to be repaired because of leaks

It said covid and Brexit uncertainty had eaten into its bottom line while it had to make a provision for remedial work on 鈥渙ne significant project鈥�.

Last year, 黑洞社区 revealed that a flagship building built by Mace for broadcaster Sky in west London was having to be repaired because the roof was leaking.

Prater was the roofing contractor on the 拢220m Sky Central scheme which was completed in 2016 and has been showered with a host of accolades.

Topics