This week’s exclusive interview with a senior executive in the UK housebuilding industry is with Jim Wood, whose distinguished career has led to his current role as managing director of Weston Homes.
Please tell us a little about yourself and the career path to your current position.
I’m married to Gillian and we have two children, both of whom are in, or coming into, the property/construction industry.
When I was young, I had no intention to build my career in property, and in fact wanted to study history, but for a number of reasons I went to college in Glasgow and secured an HND in Building. I joined John Laing (pre-Laing/O’Rourke days) on their management scheme and returned to college a year later to do a diploma in Construction Management.
For the next ten years I worked in contracting (AMEC Projects), PM Consultancy (Turner and Townsend Project Management) and in residential development with The Burrell Company, a Scottish based developer.
In the early 90s, during “my first recession”, I joined Team Management and became operations director at 32. Team Management delivered student accommodation on a funded D&B [design and build] basis.
In 1998, I joined Mace and progressed to director, and was also a shareholder. I was responsible for Mace’s regional business which included the delivery of a large number of major city centre residential developments for some of the UK’s major housebuilders. These included No.1 Deansgate and the Hacienda in Manchester.
I joined Dandara Ltd in 2003, a regional residential developer in Manchester delivering major city centre developments throughout the UK.
In 2008, I moved to Dubai as the MD of a real estate/contractor employing 3,000+ people who were involved in a broad spectrum of construction activities including residential development, contracting, marine engineering and mechanical engineering related to the oil and transportation sectors.
In 2014, I returned to the UK to join Weston Homes and from December 2015 have been managing director.
Did you always have ambitions to be an MD, or has it been a more “step-by-step” journey?
As you can see from my career path, I have been fortunate enough to work for some amazing companies and managed to attain senior positions in these organisations.
I have always been ambitious, but importantly, I thrive on challenges. Also, I have been lucky to experience so many different elements of our industry which brings a wealth of knowledge and experience with it.
I have been a director for 25 years and so to be an MD now for almost 10 years, you could say it has been a more “step-by-step” process but something that I was always ambitious to achieve.
What was it that appealed about housebuilding initially, and has it been as you’d expected?
The development world in general has always appealed to me more than contracting or consultancy. I have always enjoyed housebuilding, especially being involved in the whole process from land acquisition to handover.
I have always found city centre apartment schemes more appealing that green field schemes which is fortunate as, at Weston Homes, this makes up about 80-85% of our turnover.
Did you get good careers advice and support about working in the industry?
Support back then was far more limited than it is today, with fewer internship opportunities and fewer experts willing to offer advice. I had to be very self-motivated and it makes me proud to now work for a company such as Weston Homes that is active in recruiting young people who have an interest in property.
What are the things that are most satisfying about being an MD – and are there things you miss from your previous roles?
There are so many aspects of my job that I find satisfying, like working with a very supportive chairman, and a talented and driven team who are motivated to deliver the 10-year strategic plan we put in place two years ago.
The development and implementation of this plan was particularly satisfying as it adopted a “bottom-up” approach critically analysing turnover, sales, cashflows – especially the financial forecasts generated by the regions – as well as build handovers, profitability from each site, region and ultimately the business.
The core principles remain consistent behind all of these forecasts:
- South East of England
- No zone 1-2 central London
- £300-£800 per square foot sales value
- Brownfield development
- Optimised schemes
These forecasts harness our ability to consistently build 20% cheaper than the market and enable us to deliver genuinely affordable homes for sale.
This plan projects Weston Homes unit completions reaching 1,400 units by 2021 and 2,100 by 2026. Currently we have 7,500 units either in the production stage or in the development pipeline including three schemes of 1,000+ units.
Notwithstanding some consumer confidence issues created by Brexit, we are broadly in line with our plan.
Another area that is important to me as MD is staff development. We currently have 50+ trainees at various stages of their career development across all parts of the business. To highlight the success of this scheme, we have two Weston Homes directors who came through the scheme over the last 10 years.
Also, we have recently opened a 75,000-sq-ft logistics centre which enables us to manufacture and assemble components for delivery and installation into our developments.
Importantly, the manufacturing process is driven by CNC technology, which enables us to utilise the precision engineering this technology brings and allows us flexibility in the products we manufacture.
There are always things you miss from previous jobs but you should never look back… always forward.
How have you found the Weston Homes approach to looking after its workforce?
Weston Homes works to be an employer of choice and therefore offer a comprehensive list of benefits. With a paternalistic approach to their people, rewards and learning and development, people join and remain with us, as they feel valued. At Weston it’s not just the financial benefits, regular events like an annual Summer Ball, Family Fun Day and sporting challenges create opportunities to interact, team build and an environment where people can relax and have fun. Our long service metrics are a testament that this philosophy works.
If there was one thing you could do to start solving that national skills shortage, what would it be?
It would be to get construction on the top 10 list of career choices for the next generation considering their career options. Stereotypes and perception about construction together with a lack of understanding about the diverse range of disciplines within it don’t help. Land buying, planning, technical, design and engineering tend to be back-bench players to surveying and site management. The wealth of different options needs to be better communicated and understood. Weston Homes partner with schools and colleges locally to try to get this message across. Employers in the industry need to offer as many work experience placements as they can to allow people to explore and understand the multitude of roles and their aptitude and interest in them.
For someone who is considering housebuilding as a career, what’s your advice for making a success of it?
There is a plethora of training schemes and apprenticeships available now through the industry. Sponsored scheme creates opportunities to study to degree level on a part-time basis without the debts associated, meaning people can earn whilst attending education part-time and also benefit from on the job practical training. All of the main developers offer training places. Weston Homes are currently looking for an intake of 20+ for their various training programmes and I would encourage anyone considering housebuilding as a career to research the schemes and opportunities available.
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