Fri 4 May 2007
... with David Lloyd
This month, Michael Dineen talks to 'maverick' of the housebuilding industry - David Lloyd of City South Developments.
David Lloyd, managing director of the newly formed City South Developments - and its only begetter too - is a man who likes to keep things simple.The phrase, "So I set up City South Developments," sounded deceptively simple to me, a mere hack who gets the yips at the very words 'bank manager', so I asked him how he did it.
And the answer was simplicity itself: all you have to do is spend a lifetime creating a track record, preferably in senior management with an outfit like Bellway, and any bank manager will put on a smile and ask: "How much do you need?"
A civil engineering surveyor by training he learned his trade working for Costain on motorways around London. But that was as a very young man, and even then he was always eager to get home to his beloved Bolton at the weekends.
Now 60, he still lives in Bolton, a devoted Wanderers fan, of course; but he strongly resists the notion that he is in any way parochial.
"The north-west may seem incestuous, but all the towns - Manchester, Liverpool, Wigan, Preston and so on - are very different in character, with different needs and different people running them. Getting to know them broadens the mind just as much as working overseas," he told me.
David Lloyd was recruited by Bellway as a technical director and became a divisional managing director, working in the north-west and Scotland until internal rationalisation - and a few hints that the board in Newcastle saw him as a maverick -made him decide to move on.
Earlier in his career David had had a couple of spells with Barratt, the first when the company was called Greensitt Barratt - which sounds like a very long time ago. The second spell, some years later, was as technical director of their urban renewal set up - his first directorship, in 1988.
"I had three good years with Barratt, but I never felt they really understood urban renewal," he told me.
Then came the productive Bellway sojourn and this emergence as a maverick. My guess is that this is a word he would not use to describe his working pattern. But I'm equally sure he enjoys what can truly be described as independence today.
For while he was establishing his track record he built up an enviable array of contacts, the kind of people it is good to know when you are looking for a new direction; and absolutely vital when you take the ultimate freelance plunge and set up your very own business - with the brass plate that declares: "The buck stops here!"
Among the useful contacts David Lloyd has made over the years is a fair sprinkling of civic bosses, a few politicos and planners, all familiar with his urban renewal patch; and, of course, those bank managers.
It was when he was filling in with some consultancy work after he and Bellway parted company that he discovered the launching pad for City South Developments.
"The city council approached me in a consultancy capacity because they were worried about a developer who was looking at four urban renewal schemes for them.
"An architect and I produced designs that didn't need grants, didn't need basement parking, designs that totally seduced the city people and were completely different from those the original developer had put in.
"The city council rescinded their agreement and asked me if I'd be prepared to take my plans forward. So I went to see some of the banks in town and asked them if they'd back me - 100 per cent."
It was very refreshing for David Lloyd to hear Steve Robinson of merchant bankers Singer and Friedlander say: "You are the guy with all the ideas and no money, and we are the people with no idea but all the money."
It seems there's a general view among his banking cronies that "David Lloyd never brings in a duff scheme."
Very gratifying. There are currently seven urban regeneration schemes on City South's books, and, at 60, David is still getting a buzz doing deals, putting proposals together, haggling with investor groups who might take 50 per cent off his hands.
Fifty per cent of what? The major part of his company's output is small flats selling at between £100,000 and £180,000.
Those I saw were in the former no-go area of Hulme in Manchester - which David is helping to transform into a definitely go-go area for young professionals.
And the whole process is masterminded from an office in a converted barn in David's beloved Bolton, with a team of 12, plus site managers (employed direct) and a long-term associate Joe Donelan, his construction director who was making himself at home in one of the company's penthouses - with strategic views over the renaissance City South is taking part in.
Finally the simple fact that pleases everyone about City South Developments is that its products are selling. That, as they say, is the bottom line!
First published in Show House Magazine May 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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