The sector has been littered with high-profile failures of late. Matt Bennion talks to Dave Rogers about getting it right, his pride in T5 and dealing with angry bricklayers
Matt Bennion has a confession to make: 鈥淚 talk about T5 so much, my kids think I built it on my own.鈥�
He was working on the programme management at the scheme to build the new terminal at Heathrow airport, which opened in 2008, when he was at EC Harris, later bought up by Dutch consultant Arcadis. He had joined the firm from Davis Langdon 鈥� which, like EC Harris, would be snapped up by an overseas raider, this time Aecom 鈥� and spent 17 years there.
鈥淭5 was such a fantastic thing to be part of,鈥� he adds. 鈥淗eathrow did a fantastic job of really engaging the workforce, really engaging everybody in the belief that they would be able to look back one day and say, 鈥業 built T5鈥�. They created that across the workforce.鈥�
He adds: 鈥淚 walk around London and look at the projects I was involved in. I鈥檝e never been anything but inspired by our industry. You get to leave a legacy behind. I can鈥檛 think of a better environment to be in.鈥�
That the chief executive of offsite specialist Reds10 is an enthusiastic supporter of the construction industry is not in question. But he is realistic enough to know that, aged 53 and having been in the sector for more than three decades, it still has issues to overcome. 鈥淥ur industry has had a lot of failures because of unsustainably low levels of margins and over exposure to risk,鈥� he says.
There are still problems around getting younger people to think of a career in it, for starter鈥檚. Many youngsters cannot see much beyond a muddy boots image.
Bennion is speaking from the Southwark office of Reds10, a former factory building that used to make metal boxes which was given a swanky makeover more than a decade ago. If a bunch of 16 year-olds were taken there today and told that a tech firm was based in it, they would not be too surprised. But a construction firm?
Reds10 has been at the address for more than three years after moving out of an office in Wimbledon in 2021. 鈥淚n this office, we have environmental scientists, data analysts, designers,鈥� enthuses Bennion.
鈥淲e work on some of the best projects you could ever wish to see, but I don鈥檛 think we鈥檙e very good at telling that story in schools.鈥�
The firm has five factory buildings covering 300,000ft2 at Driffield in East Yorkshire and the company has organised tours for local schools and colleges to visit. Those factories, which employ 150 Reds10 people, are at the heart of what the firm does.
It has been going for nearly 20 years and was founded by Paul Ruddick. It is now a business with a turnover of just over 拢140m and 400 staff. Within three years, says Bennion, who joined as a shareholder in 2019, the firm is expecting income to be around 拢300m.
Bennion and Ruddick have known each other from when the pair worked together at Davis Langdon. 鈥淗e set it up from scratch, Paul is very entrepreneurial. He works in the business and I work on the business.鈥�
The offsite industry is another that has not had a favourable press in recent years. L&G has closed its modular business, Ilke Homes went down and in January another modular firm, Top Hat, which had been backed by US investment bank Goldman Sachs, said it took the decision to call it a day last November. Why, then, has it proved so hard to make a go of it?
鈥淢any of the organisations that have failed in modular have had an over-reliance on the housing market,鈥� says Bennion. 鈥淭hat market is very unpredictable, planning has been a problem and sentiment goes up and down.
No one has a right to a higher margin; you have to go out there and earn it
鈥淭hen there is another group who perhaps have gone big, invested in big facilities and done that before they have really got a product or market that wants to buy that product. There is another group who maybe have a poor form of ownership and, when that market turns against them, they get caught out.鈥�
Reds10鈥檚 plans for its factory space involve being more efficient rather than simply putting on more shifts. It is not a 24/7 operation, Bennion adds.
The firm works 100% for government clients such as the Ministry of Justice, the Defence Infrastructure Organisation and the Department for Education. 鈥淭hey are good payers,鈥� Bennion says. The firm鈥檚 margins are just under 5% but he reckons they could be double that.
鈥淣o one has a right to a higher margin; you have to go out there and earn it. If you can go after the waste that is in the process, remove duplication, then you can get 8%, 9%, 10%. Those margins are possible.
鈥淭he game is about cracking this productivity issue. It requires a different mindset and improving the process every single day.鈥�
He says that one of the keys to offsite is a pipeline of work. 鈥淭hat is tremendously important and that comes from programmes. We have made a choice to focus on government programmes of work.鈥�
Its government jobs include new wards and diagnostic units for hospitals, housing for soldiers and the MoJ鈥檚 rapid deployment cell programme which sees new units craned into existing, over-crowded prisons to create new wings.
He says that making a difference to people鈥檚 lives is important. 鈥淲hen you can connect what we do to the outcome, that gives you a great sense of pride and achievement.鈥�
If you are going to control the design, you need to control the process. People who don鈥檛 understand that simply get in the way
The firm is looking at turning the knowledge it has built up from its involvement in the single-living accommodation programme for the MoD to affordable housing. It has done affordable housing before, Bennion says, but it now wants to do more of it.
鈥淲hat鈥檚 different is doing it at scale. The government is signalling its investment in areas like this and the big-ticket issues like housing are inspiring.鈥�
He says the firm has been approached by main contractors to be a subcontractor but has given the idea a wide berth. 鈥淲e鈥檝e always said no. It would be very much on a traditional subcontractor basis and we鈥檙e not interested.
鈥淥ur view is that, if you are going to control the design, you need to control the process. People who don鈥檛 understand that simply get in the way. Owning our own destiny has been a big part of our success.鈥�
Bridges and brickies
After starting out as a trainee QS at Wates in the late 1980s 鈥� the same company his father worked for, where he was a surveyor 鈥� Matt Bennion joined Davis Langdon in 1995. He spent a further seven years at DL, leaving in 2002 to join the then EC Harris, which later became Arcadis after the Dutch firm bought it in 2011.
He was chief operating officer of EC Harris at the time of the acquisition. The new owner asked Bennion to lead its business in Asia, where he ended up as chief executive of that region.
He left in 2019 and became chairman of Reds10 later that year, becoming chief executive in 2021.
Bennion鈥檚 work has taken him overseas with spells in Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore and he admits he has a soft spot for the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, still the world鈥檚 tallest building more than 15 years after it was completed.
Closer to home, he likes a bridge 鈥� having worked on the Royal Victoria Dock bridge in east London which opened in 1998.
鈥淭he quality of architecture in London is awe-inspiring,鈥� he says. 鈥淚f pushed, I always point to the Millennium bridge. It鈥檚 connected to brilliant parts of the city.鈥�
But it was on his very first job, the Hart Shopping Centre in Fleet, Hampshire, where he cut his teeth. He was a productivity clerk and he had to measure the productivity of the bricklayers working on the job.
鈥淚 would have to manually write out 150 payment certificates and, if you made an error, people weren鈥檛 paid for the week. Those fellas didn鈥檛 muck around telling you you had stuffed up their life.鈥�
There was a saviour, though: 鈥淭he big innovation was the fax machine. I could fax down to head office amendments to payment certificates if I got them wrong.鈥�
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