Reins of Headley business picked up by partner of man who drowned in Spain

Linda Dunn, managing director of Headley Tyres, off Newbury Road, said that she had surmounted a steep entrepreneurial learning curve since taking over the business of her late partner, George Ware, who died, aged 44, off the Spanish coast in 2008.
With no prior knowledge of the business, she said that she had been greatly helped in the venture by her son, 24-year-old Bradley Dunn, and the manager, Andy Hazelden.
Ms Dunn said that Mr Ware, to whom she has dedicated a new state-of-the-art building at the site, had proposed a month before he died.
He had already obtained planning permission for the building, which includes drive-through, brake-testing and wheel alignment facilities and which 49-year-old Ms Ware, who lives in Ascot, described as “George’s baby”.
“It took a while to get the probate, as he drowned, but we started to build last year, before the planning permission lapsed”.
They moved in to the new premises in October. Although the recession had affected trade, she said that, thanks to a loyal customer database, the business had survived, providing employment for eight staff, and they had been able to hold prices steady in a competitive market, after selling five acres of the site to a housing developer.
Mr Ware went missing while sailing off the coast of Sotogrande, not far from Malaga, on July 26, 2008.
Mr Ware had moved from Headley, where he grew up, to live in Spain several years prior to his death.
The chairman of Ashford Hill with Headley Parish Council, Barrie Hiscock, said in 2008 that he had known Mr Ware since his mother and father, Margaret and the late Jimmy Ware, had run the former Harrow Garage in Headley.
George Ware, who took over the business in the 1980s after his father died, gave a yearly donation to Headley Athletic Football Club, which he played for as a boy.