A method and apparatus are provided for changing the unwinding direction of wound laps supplied by a delivery station in order to form a group of wound laps in which the face sides of adjacent wound laps are provided with the same distance and the longitudinal axes of the wound laps are disposed in one line. A rotatable vertical shaft is provided with one or more horizontal receivers that receive the laps sequetially and rotate each lap by 90.degree. with the division of a winding group being maintained.