Home improvement group Entu (UK) announced the deal to offload the company just 18 months after buying the business for £200,000 from Gentoo.

Astley specialises in exterior wall insulation, render and specialist cladding for new-build construction and the refurbishment of existing stock.  

Entu said that since its acquisition in March 2015, Astley had grown its order book significantly. 

“However, in line with the general direction of the specialist facades market, Astley is increasingly engaged as a subcontractor on a number of large, long term, construction contracts which is, typically, lower margin business and not in line with Entu’s core customer base and specialisms,” explained an Entu spokesman.

Maclean, who started out as a heating engineer at the age of 16, rose to prominence in 1996 when he founded Manchester-based Apollo Heating.

After running the business for 10 years he sold it to the Yorkshire outsourcing specialist Spice.

The Duality Group, owned by Maclean and accountant Martin Holmes, is the new owner of the rendering and cladding business.