Yorkshire-based construction company, Sewell Construction, is growing its team after a successful year of contract wins, with 20% of its team achieving promotions.
Mark Boothby and Chris Soper have recently stepped into the roles of Joint Managing Director, with a collective 40 years in the business between them. Their appointments follow a recruitment drive over the last year, which has seen 21 new people join the business alongside many internal promotions.
Mark Boothby, Joint MD, said:
“Investing in young people and creating a talent pipeline has been a core part of our business strategy for many years. We strive to be a home for talent and provide exciting opportunities within the business for our team to develop their skills and advance their careers.
“With a strong period of growth under our belts, we’re able to offer more people opportunities for career progression and are setting out on a further recruitment drive as we look ahead to 2022.”
The business, which has recently secured a Queen’s Award for Enterprise for Promoting Opportunity as part of the wider Sewell Estates collective, also announced this year its plans to triple its recruitment of graduates, apprentices and trainees over the next five years, in support of local economic recovery.
Chris Soper, Joint MD, added:
“As a wider group of companies, we have always championed social mobility and ‘grown our own’, with 75% of our senior team coming from non-academic routes into employment and gaining their qualifications whilst in the workplace.
“We hire on attitude and culture fit, with the understanding that the skills needed can be taught on the job. We’re lucky to have found so much new talent over the years, and this approach is now bearing fruit with many of the team stepping into more senior roles.”
One of the Sewell Construction team who’s had a promotion this year is Design Manager, Katie Robertson, who has stepped up from Design Coordinator. She said:
“I started working with Sewell Construction as Design Coordinator 4 years ago in a trainee capacity and have since worked my way up to Design Manager, which I’m really proud of. I oversee our design and consultant teams, building information modelling projects, BREEAM and sustainable design requirements as well as making sure that our projects are compliant with current building legislation and best codes of practice.
“My career has always been important to me and I’ve worked hard over the years to progress, which the business has supported and encouraged me to do.”
Another member of the Sewell Construction team that started out as a trainee is Jack Henderson, who has now progressed to Assistant Site Manager. He said: “Since joining Sewell Construction it has been refreshing to be surrounded and supported by a team of like-minded individuals.
“It has always been important to me to find a company that was a good cultural fit and would invest in my career development. This couldn’t be more true here at Sewell; I’ve just started a degree in Construction Management at Sheffield Hallam University and I’m excited to be able to further my academic career with the support and guidance from the leadership team.”
The team at Sewell Construction has been working tirelessly over the last year, securing new projects, surpassing scheme milestones, and handing over several quality projects. The forward order book for 2022 is also looking bright, with completion of the new West Hull Health Hub, Wakefield’s Tileyard North, Broadacre Primary School new build and extensions at Boulevard and Kingswood Academies on the horizon.
The business has a highly skilled workforce, which also includes in-house trade operatives, meaning it can respond to projects of varying scale, from smaller maintenance and improvement schemes to multi-million-pound new builds. Its Construction Services team have a long term relationship with the likes of Drax and Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust, allowing them to respond quickly to clients’ requirements and help keep key sites operational 24/7.
The team has vast experience across a whole host of projects, working with primary care organisations, hospital trusts, education providers, local authorities, and commercial organisations on projects across aerospace, leisure, culture, infrastructure, and heritage projects, to name just a few.
Sewell Construction has been operating across the Yorkshire and Humber region for over 140 years and is part of Sewell Estates, which delivers investments, developments, and facilities management solutions for public and private sector customers.
The Sewell Estates collective of businesses also includes West-Yorkshire based construction company Illingworth and Gregory, Sewell Investments, Sewell Facilities Management, Shared Agenda, Parallel and the most recent investment, Community Ventures Ltd.