All the finalists in Building's Entrepreneur of the Year award had identified gaps in the market and exploited them with great ideas. Building profiles the winner and the worthy runners-up, and looks at the reasons for their successes
The winner

Unite
Driven by a strong vision
Spotting a niche in the market is the entrepreneur's greatest gift, and Nicholas Porter's eye is pretty sharp. He is the founder and chief executive of Unite, one of the UK's leading providers of student and "key worker" accommodation services. Porter says his aim was to provide a complete package to the client – Unite produces architectural drawings, prefabricates bedroom and bathroom units, is project manager and construction manager to its own development and it services the buildings.

Porter set up Unite in 1991 after he realised that universities were suffering from what he calls a "management headache" in providing accommodation for their students. "As a private landlord, I was trying to organise the letting of some flats to the University of the West of England, which was dealing with the needs of about 4000 students. I could see there was a lack of quality affordable housing in the South-west and therefore a big gap in the market," he says.

Porter undertook a series of housing projects for the university between 1991-1994, on the client's condition that Porter also managed the units – and the concept of Unite was born.

Its growth has been rapid. The early years were spent consolidating in the South-west. In 1998, it went into a joint venture with the Peabody Trust in London to provide accommodation for NHS staff. The company now manages 24,000 beds and employs 370 staff.

Porter explains his company's success: "The other directors and I have a strong vision of what we want to achieve. We have also been selective about who we employ. Unite is a bit like a profit-making public business – a lot of people want to join us because our motives are not only financial," he says. "It's a people business for real people's accommodation needs."

Porter has looked to prefabrication to keep costs low. Unite builds all its bedroom and bathroom units off-site, delivering them as sealed units already fitted with data cabling for internet access and smart-card entry systems.

Last year, the company moved onto the London Stock Exchange's official list. Between 1999 and 2000, its turnover jumped by 63% to £30m. Since January 2001, the business has grown by 25%. Unite is the preferred bidder for two projects with the universities of Northumbria and Portsmouth, together worth £30m. Porter aims to own and manage 60,000 beds by 2003.

Judges for the award were unanimous in their verdict. They said: "They had some great ideas, spotting several gaps in the market. That's one great characteristic of a successful entrepreneur. The other is to see those ideas through and emerge as market leader. Unite has done that, too. This is a true success story."

Porter is upbeat about the company's outlook. "There are 1.5m students in this country – the market is huge. Our reputation for providing a quality service continues to grow and we are determined to keep breaking the mould in the provision of affordable accommodation," he says.

The Runners-Up

Cadweb

Born of frustration
Six years ago, site manager Chris Newman (right) decided there had to be a way of using IT to reduce the bureaucracy of project management. He was building an exhibition centre, knowing that he would have to redo his work because a revised drawing had to be passed by several managers before it got to him. The concept for the online project management system Cadweb was conceived out of sheer frustration. Set up in 1995 with his brother Francis, Newman’s company has grown by 100% in the past 18 months. It has 15 staff and is involved in 35 projects worth a total of £1bn. Cadweb offers contractors an electronic way to manage information exchange and has developed what it considers a bespoke software system for builders. Cadweb director Francis Newman explains: “The system is more than an electronic noticeboard or data bank. It provides audit trails for drawings, emails – the lot.” Cadweb’s largest project is a £150m scheme in central London for Prudential Investment Management. The company has a turnover of £400,000 a year, and is negotiating its slice of a £2.5bn project.

Integra

Outdoing the old hands
For Brighton-based contractor Integra, delivering quality customer service has been the driving force behind the business since its creation eight years ago. Joe McNulty (left), managing director and co-founder of the company, says he realised while he was a building student in Brighton that contractors could dramatically improve their relationships with clients. “My college pal Jon Wright and I looked around at what builders were doing, and decided we could do it better by giving the customer a real service, as well as a quality construction product,” says McNulty. McNulty and Wright talked to potential clients so that they could orientate it as a service provider from the start. “We didn’t want to just produce a colourful brochure – we knew if we could deliver exactly what the client wanted, that would do our marketing for us,” says McNulty. Integra’s main clients are schools, doctors’ surgeries and housing associations and over 70% of the company’s work is negotiated. McNulty says the business adopted the partnering concept at a very early stage. “Long-term relationships with clients benefit all, and our partners each have a single point of contact in the company, so there is a lot of consistency,” he says. When McNulty and Wright started up the business in 1993, the industry was in recession, but McNulty was unperturbed. “The advantage was the availability of good people,” he says. “These people have stayed with us because we’ve invested in their training and acknowledge their work.” This year, the £10m-turnover company has allocated up to £40,000 for training. Integra aims to grow its developing market in the South-west and is working on a £4m retirement home in Gloucestershire.

Gusto Construction

Green with enthusiasm
When Stephen Wright (right) formed Nottinghamshire-based Gusto Construction in the mid-1990s, he wanted to reinvent how housebuilders work. “Too many housebuilders build to the minimum building regulations, but we have tried to rethink the whole building process with an emphasis on sustainable development,” says Wright. With the help of institutions such as BRE and Jonathan Porritt’s Forum for the Future, Wright says he has developed a greener way of building. As proof of the business’ achievements, it has been awarded the international standard ISO1401. “Instead of looking to maximise profit, we’ve spent the past three years concentrating on research and development,” says Wright. His aim was to put down a solid foundation for the 30-strong company’s future growth. Gusto Construction, which has a turnover of £1.5m, now hopes to increase its geographic scope. Wright is also eager to grow the building products side of his business, Gusto Industries. “We realised we can sell the greener building products we have been developing,” he explains. “We are in talks with a well known multimillion-pound retailer about becoming a supplier.” As for the name of the business, Wright explains: “I used to have a disco business where I called myself Dr Gusto. The word means enthusiasm, and that’s what we’re about.”

CMInternational

See a gap, go for it
In three years, CMInternational has become one of Hong Kong’s largest construction management firms. Civil engineer Jim Osborne set it up because he saw a gap in the market. He says: “Construction project services did not really exist in Hong Kong in the late 1990s. I could see the role they played in the UK and thought the Asian market would be receptive.” It was. In its first year (1998), CMI turned over £2.5m, a figure that has now grown to £10m. Today it employs 160 people and has eight international offices. Last year, Osborne sold CMI to real estate service provider Trammell Crow Savills to increase its geographical sweep. “Our clients are global players. Trammells has offices throughout Europe and the Americas – as well as Asia,” says Osborne. For CMI, the greatest challenge has been finding the best people to employ. “Ensuring these people are happy in their career is an ongoing concern,” says Osborne. CMI’s clients include Walt Disney, Standard Chartered Banks and Marks & Spencer. Osborne puts his success down to his willingness to take risks: “The key is to identify a clear market for a service you can develop quickly – and then be prepared to take some risks.”

Piercy Conner Fairman

Thinking outside the box
Architectural practice Piercy Conner Fairman became front-page news this summer with its hugely popular proposal to develop affordable “micro-flats” for London’s young professionals. The architect continues to receive calls from individuals anxious to snap up a 25 m2 mini-apartment, based on yacht and caravan design. The scheme will go ahead as soon as the company secures a backer. Director Stuart Piercy (right) attributes the success of the idea to the way the company encourages its staff to use their imagination. “We spend money on make-believe projects to encourage our designers to be creative; it’s essential to keep the innovative ideas coming through. We created the micro-flat because it’s something we would like to own ourselves,” says 30-year-old Piercy. The architects, Piercy and Richard Conner, are part of the 23-strong holding company Piercy Conner Fairman Group, which also runs Smoothe, a specialist in 3D renderings of buildings. Smoothe director Matt Fairman says: “There is not a strict division between the two sides: the graphics people look after the architects and vice versa. The success of the micro-flat concept is good for the all-round profile of the business.” The holding company turns over £750,000 a year, and recently opened a Manchester office. Fairman says the company has grown rapidly since its creation two years ago because of its staff investment – “we identify a business development plan with each new employee.” Do the directors ever disagree? Fairman laughs: “We argue a lot and are always challenging each other. But it’s never the same two people.”

Talent spotting

Building launched the Entrepreneur of the Year award to recognise and reward go-getting talent in the construction industry. The inaugural winner, and recipient of £5000, was announced on Wednesday 17 October at a special awards ceremony as part of the Built Environment 2001 exhibition of construction and design at the ExCel centre in London Docklands. The award was sponsored by Local Authority Building Control. Entry was open to all construction firms set up since 1990, or any organisation that had undergone rapid change in the past three years. Six entrepreneurs were shortlisted for the award. They were Cadweb, CMInternational, Piercy Conner Fairman, Gusto Construction, Integra and Unite. The judges were Sir Frank Lampl, life president of Bovis Lend Lease, John Morgan, chairman of Morgan Sindall and Building editor Adrian Barrick.

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