AXLE Group Holdings, the company behind the National Tyre and Autocare chain, has slashed its losses and transferred £50m of property assets to a new entity, writes Simon Bain.

The Glasgow-based business, bought by former tyre fitter Alan Revie in 2002, booked a loss of £102,000 in the year ended December 31, following losses of £2.1m and £1.5m in the previous two years.

But its latest accounts show the payment of a ‘dividend’ of £49.7m to RCT Ltd, set up last September.

Mr Revie said yesterday RCT was owned in the same proportion as Axle Group, where the founder has 54per cent and five other shareholder directors the balance.

“We have moved the property assets out of the trading business and created a property business,” he said.

But he said it was not a precursor to a sale of the company. “We genuinely have nobody talking to us,” he said.

Mr Revie, 57, bought the heavily loss-making National Tyre Services 14 years ago for £9m. He paid only £2m upfront, for a business with assets of £80m and £25m of tax losses on its books, the entrepreneur told The Herald in 2012.

Last year the group saw turnover fall to £156.2m from £159.3m, accounts newly filed at Companies House show.

Directors’ remuneration jumped from £2.53m to £4.38m, though £6.65m was paid out in 2013. Staff costs rose from £32.2m to £34.4m, with average staff numbers rising by 16 to 1452.

“The business is doing exceptionally well,” Mr Revie said. “We are up to 241 branches, and at board level we have just signed off another 12 which we hope to open between now and the first quarter of next year.”