Scottish auto industry entrepreneur Alan Revie has revealed that he paid only £2 million upfront to buy National Tyre Services from its German owners a decade ago, yet the business had almost £80m of property assets and £140m of tax losses at the time.

In an interview with The Herald, Mr Revie said he had intervened in late 2001 to stop multinational tyre manufacturer Continental selling off the business to a London-based company which intended to close down its 200 depots with the loss of 1300 jobs.

He and three former colleagues in the industry then offered the German group £24m to take over the business as a going concern. But he managed to persuade Continental to put up £15m in working capital, and to defer the repayment of the remaining £9m.

"We had no need to raise any capital," Mr Revie said. "All we had to do was overturn a £20m a year trading loss."

NTS was back in profit within two years and in 2005 it embarked on an expansion strategy and now has 250 depots, the only major independent in the industry sitting behind formerly Scottish-owned Kwik-Fit, now in private equity hands, and Michelin-owned ATS.

Turnover has doubled to £175m, and the group is debt-free with £65m of shareholder funds, some £51m held in Mr Revie's Scottish holding company Axle Investments. NTS recorded a £3.9m profit last year, and is still utilising the tax losses acquired with the business, with some £25m still outstanding.