The four still grieving children of a Sutton Coldfield businessman are planning a fitting legacy for the business their father founded on the first anniversary today of his untimely death.

Mark, aged 35, Simon, 34, and 25-year-old twins Gemma and Jamie, who inherited Steel & Alloy Processing when dad David Ashwell died, are determined to see the company maintain its position as the leading UK automotive steel processor – and that it keeps the same philosophy and style which he so firmly drummed into them.

Their priority is to secure jobs long-term and see continued investment and growth to ensure Steel & Alloy develops, innovates and flourishes in the future in the same manner as it has in the last 38 years.

Simon is a consultant in diabetes and endocrinology in Middlesbrough while his sister qualifies as a doctor from the University of Leeds in September. Mark and Jamie inherited their father's commercial streak and live in Sutton where they care for their mother, who has Alzheimer's, while managing the family affairs and overseeing Steel & Alloy as board directors.

Jamie said: "Dad never accepted his illness and was determined not to let it affect his life. He always said he could get better, while mum would only get worse. But no one ever told us his condition was terminal.

"Dad worked up until a few days before he died. He was very rarely ill and hated taking time off work, even when very poorly. He said it set the right example! I don't think anyone at work really knew how ill he was."

Mr Ashwell was diagnosed with a rare condition called cardiac amyloidosis in November 2005 after suffering from breathlessness. Amyloidosis affects only eight people in a million – or 400 people in the UK each year.

As a result of a bone marrow abnormality the condition results in heart damage due to the accumulation of an abnormal protein. It took only ten weeks from diagnosis for the condition to become fatal. He started chemotherapy on January 7 last year, but died just ten days later.

Mr Ashwell founded Steel & Alloy in 1968 in Pleasant Street, West Bromwich, to process steel for UK car makers. Last month, 38 years later to the day, the children unveiled a plaque and picture in his memory at the Trafalgar Works plant on Union Street which is now the group's headquarters.

By 2000 Mr Ashwell had built it to an annual turnover of #50 million with 150 employees producing 150,000 tonnes of steel.

He was already planning the succession. Having been founder, sole shareholder and MD, he introduced David Johnson as finance director in 1997 and Max Coleman as operations director in 1999.

In July 2003, long standing sales director Mark Cooper became managing director with Mr Ashwell retaining his role as chairman. At the same time Ian Gibson earned promotion to sales director to complete the senior team.

The moves paid dividends with the firm growing to 200 staff and exceeding #120 million turnover before he died – while last year saw over 300,000 tonnes of steel roll through the production lines for a record turnover of #146 million, partly bolstered by steel prices.

Steel & Alloy's client list reads like a Who's Who of the UK automotive industry, with the likes of Toyota at Burnaston, Honda at Swindon and all the major first-tier steel component suppliers. Indeed, 85 per cent of UK car manufacture, from Ford and General Motors to the Japanese-owned businesses, includes chassis and body product or inner and outer skins for body panels with steel sourced from Steel & Alloy. Plans for the future are ambitious.

Mr Cooper said: "Even though there are no British-owned volume car makers now, UK production in the last few years has been close to its peak of the early 1970s. We are looking at plans to manufacture and process outside the UK to move the business to the next level, though this would be adding jobs, not exporting them."