On the move: the latest East Midlands hires
Avant Homes has appointed a new group commercial director as it pursues its ambition to become a £1 billion turnover business by 2023.
Paul Devaney brings more than 30 years’ experience in the housebuilding and commercial industry to the Derbyshire-based firm.
He said: “Avant Homes is an ambitious business with bundles of energy that offers impressive product and specification to its customers and it’s great to become a part of an organisation that desires to be different from the rest.
“Within my role in the commercial team, I’m passionate about developing the team’s knowledge and best practice to ultimately make Avant Homes a market leader while raising industry standards through the relentless pursuit of accurate and transparent cost management.”
Avant CEO Colin Lewis added: “We’ve had great momentum this year in the advancement of our product, people and processes. As we enter the next phase of our expansion, it’s essential we continue to drive a consistent trajectory of growth.
“With his wealth of experience, Paul will lead the group commercial team to ensure they are fully engaged in ensuring Avant Homes is commercially viable allowing our sustained growth to gather pace, while simultaneously working to meet our wider goals as a housebuilder that sets itself apart from its competitors by offering a product and experience unlike any other.”
Elsewhere, Derby construction boss Ian Hodgkinson has continued his drive to attract young people to the sector by recruiting seven new bricklaying apprentices.
Anthony Crick, Louis Caudwell, Harry Moran, Kuga Tazvinzwa, Zac Beer, Ross Holland and James Boyfield have all joined Pride Park-based Hodgkinson Builders, whose workforce contains a significant percentage of former apprentices.
Ian Hodgkinson
Hodgkinson, a long-time supporter of apprenticeships, co-founded the Access Training Construction Academy in association with BUILDBASE in 2019.
He said: “To survive in business, you need the lifeblood of apprentices; of motivated youngsters who are given the tools that they need to make a difference and achieve their dreams.
“Of our 100-strong bricklaying workforce, 22 of them are already a product of our training and apprenticeship schemes and I fully expect that proportion to increase as we move into the future.”
He added: “While most construction firms are likely to be compromised by Brexit in terms of resources and staffing, the fact that we can generate our own skilled workforce means we’re completely unaffected by it.
“We can simply push on, investing in our apprentices and doing an ever greater part to help solve Britain’s housing shortage.”
Hodgkinson enjoyed a record year in 2019, and is expecting to construct more than 200 houses this year.
