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Care homes were starting grid for a high-octane rise to fortune
STEPPING into Lawrence Tomlinson's boardroom is like going back in time. From an ordinary office, I'm taken through an ordinary door, only to meet another door, except this one is thick, padded and closes softly behind you to block out the noise of the world outside.
Once inside, the boardroom of LNT Group, full of heavy, varnished wood furniture with rows of glittering trophies on the shelves, looks like the long-established meeting place of a group of company elders. That's not quite the case, however, as it's only two years old, and looks out on to a factory floor where another arm of the empire, Ginetta Cars, has its production base.
Mr Tomlinson, tall, slim with slicked-back hair has not given many interviews and, as he makes clear, he is not particularly worried about his public image.
When you are worth about 300m, and have a portfolio of companies ranging from a construction firm specialising in care homes to a business surveyors and valuers, an executive helicopter business and a maker of road-racing sports cars, it is easy to be unruffled by what the rest of the world says about you.
LNT Group, of which he is chairman, has nine trading companies but, when asked about the turnover of one of them, he says he doesn't know.
Having sold the original Orchard Care Home operation to a management buy-out team in a 175m deal two years ago – "It was a good opportunity to sell a business when people were keen to buy businesses" – he seems more interested in the details of the products now, rather than the bottom line.
All the firms in his group are self-funding, he says, and it's the innovations in care-home construction or motor-car engines that spark his enthusiasm when he talks, explaining the detail of racing-car engine designs or outlining why his new project will be a new concept in elderly care.
LNT Construction specialises in the design and build of care homes and assisted-living units, and Mr Tomlinson says: "We will make it more of a lifestyle choice – with the highest standards of care for the elderly."
Staying in a care home is not cheap. Local authorities contribute to the cost of housing a patient but, normally, residents have to sell their properties or some of their assets to meet the bill for the home's fees. The LNT plan is to build care homes for the operators with whom it works, that are cheaper to run and so save patients from having to contribute themselves.
"It is a low-cost model. We will be able to take people in at the local authority rate (but] we don't make as much money
out of it."
So why do it then?
"We have an ability to make a huge difference to a lot of people's lives. I don't want to be boastful but we are very good at what we do."
LNT may no longer operate care homes but it is still very involved in the industry. As well as LNT Construction, the group also owns CoolBlue IT Solutions, which develops bespoke software for the care industry.
Its management system is designed to be easy to use and has been installed in more than 800 care homes in the UK and Ireland.
Given Mr Tomlinson's historic involvement in the care industry – in 1988, he took over the management of a care home owned by his parents – one might expect the rest of his companies to be in related sectors, but that's not the case.
GLP Taylors is made up of a health-care advisory arm, which last year sold, valued, bought and formally advised on more than 1.5bn worth of health-care property and businesses, and the valuations side, which provides reports across sectors including hotels, the licensed trade, catering, leisure, health care, education and retail.
It is cars, however, that seem to dominate upon first meeting Mr Tomlinson.
In 2005, LNT bought Ginetta Cars, under its LNT Automotive banner. The following year, Mr Tomlinson and his two co-drivers steered the Team LNT Panoz Esperante to first place in the GT2 class of the Le Mans 24-hour race – just three-and-a-half years after he first took up the pursuit.
The group's premises, in Garforth, Leeds, were opened by Damon Hill, the British former Formula One champion. They house a Ginetta car once driven by Graham Hill, also an F1 winner.
Mr Tomlinson insists that the cars arm of LNT, and the other companies, are largely unaffected by the recession – "other than the customers' inability to get debt".
Given that the race cars range in price from 14,950 to 1m, with most of them sold for about 45,000, this strength in the face of a British near-economic meltdown may seem hard to believe, but the majority of the vehicles are sold abroad – and, presumably, to people who are rich enough to buy a plaything that costs more than the average Briton's salary.
For Mr Tomlinson, a father-of-four, racing represents a combination of his business interests and hobby.
Team LNT is both a race-car development and a race-team company, and activities at the factory range from designers poring over blueprints to huge orange trucks that go with the team to Le Mans.
Mr Tomlinson was named in the top 200 of The Sunday Times rich list, but doesn't have the public profile that might be expected of someone with such a background.
He has spent time with his friend, Sir Richard Branson, at the Virgin entrepreneur's private game reserve in South Africa, but the differences between the gregarious balloon-racer and the self-possessed car racer are enormous.
When Mr Tomlinson said that it is "nice to be in a position where you can do what you want", he was talking about his care-home work, but it seems an apt summary of his approach to life.
Lawrence Tomlinson
Title: Founder and chairman, LNT Group
Date of birth: August 24, 1964.
First job: apprentice engineer
Education: (School/university): Batley Grammar, Huddersfield Technical College and Bradford University.
Favourite film: The Matrix
Favourite song: Beautiful Day by U2
Car driven: Various. Off the track: Ginetta G50 EV electric car, Aston Martin, Range Rover. On the track: Ginetta Zytek GZ09S, G50Z
Favourite holiday destination: Antigua
Most proud of: Winning at Le Mans in 2006
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