Sat 4 Aug 2007
... with Simon Wright
Michael Dineen talks to Simon Wright, the larger-than-life founder of Simon Wright Homes.
Simon Wright took the trouble to earn his first million before getting involved in housebuilding. When Simon Wright Homes sprang into life he was 29, but the £1 million had already been achieved six years earlier. How come?The son of an itinerant farm labourer, Wright had an education that was nothing if not varied. By the time he had finished schooling – on a high note with 13 O-levels and four As – he’d attended 13 schools throughout the south-east.
Maths was his major subject and, not unnaturally, he chose a career in accountancy. So far, so good. Logical and sensible. The only trouble was that Wright was impatient to do something a little more adventurous or entrepreneurial.
For example, at 17 he had applied for and got a £60 grant from the Prince’s Trust. He wanted the money to pay for a wetsuit; but it was not for his own amusement; he wanted it so that he could train other younger kids in aquatic sports, which he did – and, incidentally, rose through the executive ranks of the Kent branch of the Prince’s Trust during the next 12 years.
There’s a kind of entrepreneurism implied in all that, although non-profit making. And Simon confirms this when he says, only half jokingly, “I reckon I repaid that £60. It was money well invested!” He had made a success of his first venture and today dozens of youngsters have him (and the Trust) to thank for their canoeing know-how.
Not at all surprising to learn that accountancy palled, and after a year of boring theory he chose to take a job at HFC Finance House – and moved himself a step nearer the entrepreneurial world he craved. He took to merchant banking like the proverbial duck to water. So much so that he became the company’s youngest branch manager at 21.
He says his size had something to do with making such rapid progress: “ I was six feet seven inches tall and weighed 18 stone. I had looked 35 since I was 17!”
Size certainly mattered, but I must add energy and enthusiasm to the list of his assets, and it was a boyish enthusiasm for sports cars that led to his next move: “I’d bought an old clapped out MG for £700 and used a plant hire machinery workshop belonging to a friend to work on it.” He eventually sold the car in concours d’elegance condition and tip-top running order for £7,500.
“I used that to pay the deposit on a house, and I got married; but I’d also noticed there was money to be made in the plant hire business. Doing up second hand plant and renting it out at double what you paid for it seemed like money for old rope,” he says. So, the budding banker raised £35,000 on a personal loan and bought the plant hire company, which was turning over £100,000 annually at the time.
Here we must pause to record the fact that Simon Wright’s size mattered on the sports field, and there are no prizes for guessing that he played in the second row for various rugby teams including Blackheath and Maidstone – for whom he still plays regularly at 39, doubling these days as trainer for a bunch of club kids.
Anyway, the matey freemasonry of rugger helped him when he set up as a plant hire man, and there was no shortage of work generated by the old-boy-net. Many players told him: “We’ll give you a bit of business.” And in a very short time he had achieved a ten-fold increase in turnover. Some of his plant hire business involved housebuilders, so when Wright was approached by a multi-national who wanted to buy his company for £1 million he was quite prepared to start property developing. He was just 23, and duly formed a company to that end.
He admits that he was mistaken when he allowed himself to be persuaded to stay on as a highly paid executive – charged with the task of buying up other small plant hire firms. Eventually, though, he extricated himself from wage slavery and started Simon Wright Homes in earnest in 1997.
Ten years on he talks confidently about the current state of play: this year 100 units, next year 300. He has been doubling his turnover year on year for the past five years, and expects to do the same for the next five. We don’t have to take Wright’s word for all this. It has been verified by the steely-eyed Sunday Times Virgin Atlantic Fast Track 100 inquisitors in both 2005 and 2006.
But where is this lively newcomer operating? Mainly in Kent, and if Wright has a five-year plan it is to be top regional builder there. For he sees Kent as a “terrific growth area” because of the new Euro fast rail links, and not least because the county is now more a part of Europe than anywhere else in the UK.
He is building a range of homes from two bedroom flats at £160,000 in, say, the Thames Gateway to five-bedroom homes at £695,000. But it is not size – nor price, nor quantity – that matters most to him. More than once during our conversation he told me: “I want people to feel proud of owning a Simon Wright home.”
He is building a brand image as well as houses. Is this a space to be watched? And talking of spaces, SWH does not boast a large land bank. Currently it stands at a modest 190 plots. “As soon as we get any land we build on it. Never stockpile it. We sell the homes as fast as we build them.”
How fast is that? “As fast as I want to build them but I’m independent and I never want to be involved in the little boxes trade. Quality’s the key.”
First published in Show House Magazine August 2007.
The greatest care has been taken to ensure accuracy but some information contained within this article may have changed since it was first published.
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