Mr Craig McKinney is a powerful figure who has been synonymous with Woodchester since its foundation in 1977. The 48-year-old Scotsman first came to Ireland when he was 22 to work with his brother Jack at Hamilton Leasing, a company then owned by the British venture capital company 3i. The two left some years later after they failed to secure the funding to buy-out the company from its British owners and subsequently set up a rival leasing company.

Specialising in financing office equipment and cars Woodchester was fairly slow to get off the ground. In the first two years it made profits of around £50,000 but later grew rapidly helped by the favourable tax arrangements in the leasing sector at the time. Within 10 years it was making profits of more than £36 million.

Under Mr McKinney's stewardship, it expanded through a series of acquisitions, absorbing, Bowmaker Bank, Trinity Bank, Mercantile Credit and UDT/First Southern Bank in Ireland along the way. It also moved into the UK, taking a 29.9 per cent stake in Lookers motor finance group in 1985 while later acquiring Lease Management Services, and Anglo and Adelaide Finance in Northern Ireland.

To support its rapid growth, Mr McKinney brought in a series of new equity partners to provide the necessary financial backing. Its three most important partners have been AIB's venture capital fund ACT, which was followed by the British holding company British & Commonwealth, which financed its £20 million takeover of Hamilton Leasing (Ireland).

Following the spectacular collapse of B&C its majority stake in Woodchester was divided up with 32 per cent of Woodchester placed with four Irish and British financial institutions and the balance of 29.9 per cent was bought by the French bank Credit Lyonnais in 1989.

In 1991 it raised its stake from 29.9 per cent to 49 per cent, a move which generated a strong capital surplus for Woodchester. It later increased its stake to over 50 per cent as part of a strategy to buy-back the shares to bolster the price in difficult markets.

It has not all been plain sailing for Mr McKinney though, and the group had its fair share of bad periods, with the currency crisis and a downturn in the British leasing market putting the company under pressure. In 1994 it issued a profits warning, and was forced to implement a major restructuring to cut costs. While Woodchester made a handsome contribution to its French partners over the years, Credit Lyonnais had its own problems, forcing it to sell off much of its non-core banking business. This had fuelled much speculation that it would eventually sell off its Irish interests but McKinney was adamant that his brainchild would not become part of a fire-sale lot.

He has undoubtedly achieved that ambition and has still managed to remain in charge of its day-today operations.