Profile: Alistair Hamilton

WHEN Alistair Hamilton was at school his art teacher tried to encourage him to consider architecture as a career but the teenager was having none of it.

“For lots of reasons I ignored that advice and trained to be a civil engineer,” says the head of architecture practice Darnton B3.

It’s a decision that has come back to haunt him.

“Because of my position, most people think I’m an architect,” he admits. “It would nice to have RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) after my name but I don’t let it worry me.”

He adds: “I understand the profession inside out, I just don’t have the qualification to go with it. I keep kidding my wife that when I retire I will qualify but I don’t think I will be allowed to do that.”

Darnton B3 is headquartered in Monk Fryston, near Leeds. It employs 165 staff at 11 offices around the UK and has a turnover of £10m.

Darnton, previously known as Darnton EGS, has almost doubled in size in the last 12 months following its merger with B3 Architects.

“It was a significant merger,” says Hamilton. “We used to have three offices in Leeds, London and Bristol and now we have national coverage.”

Its offices are located in, Leeds, Bradford, Manchester, London, Loughborough, Cardiff, Bristol, Newtown, Aberystwyth, Newcastle and Glasgow.

He adds: “The business can’t stand still and we felt we needed to grow and strengthen our presence. We were looking for quite a while to find an opportunity to grow substantially and make a step change within the business and this was a very good fit for us.”

The company works in most sectors but is particularly strong in retail, sport and leisure, education and housing.

“We don’t specialise,” says Hamilton. “But we have good experience in most sectors carrying out interior fit-outs and major construction projects.”

It recently designed and project managed Airedale International’s new factory in Rawdon, Leeds, after its premises was destroyed by a fire in 2013. A few years ago it also helped M&S to set up its Champs Elysees store in Paris.

Hamilton’s ambition is to grow the company within the healthcare sector and also expand overseas. The company is setting up an office in Dubai to pick up more business in the Middle East.

“We believe we need to continue to grow and that is not easy to achieve,” he says. “The main thing is providing great service for our clients. That is the bedrock of any growth plan and we need to make sure we have the right people in the business to achieve that.”

Hamilton says he is open to future mergers and acquisitions but there is nothing currently in the pipeline.

For now he is concentrating on diversifying the sectors and geographical areas in which the business works. “My belief is that the world is a small place now so we need to look at how to internationalise,” he says.

Hamilton believes the looming EU Referendum is currently holding back the property and construction industry. “People seem to be indecisive,” he says. “We are finding the market quite challenging at the moment.”

Born in Motherwell in Scotland, Hamilton moved to Reading when he was a baby. His family made the move up to Yorkshire when he was 12.

As teenager, Hamilton became an avid rally navigator - one of the reasons he says he ignored the advice to study architecture.

He competed in national and international rallies but says it was never a serious career prospect. “I was far too grounded to throw everything in for that,” he says. “I got to a good level but it’s an expensive sport and once the family came along it died a natural death.”

After studying civil engineering, Hamilton ended up working in the construction sector. It was when he got the opportunity to freelance in 1989 that he found himself working at a firm called Darnton LG.

It was run by a group of partners at the time.

He went on to become a permanent member of staff after the partners noticed his potential. “They recognised that I realised what made the business tick and they latched on to that,” he says. “That is what a lot of people lack and that is why I have managed to get on as well as I have even though I haven’t got the main qualification. I was persuaded to stay.”

Hamilton was offered a partnership in 1997, which he almost turned down. “I wasn’t sure that was where my future lay,” he admits. “I couldn’t really see the direction the business was going in at the time. But when I thought about it more, I decided to give it a go and it spurred me into action.”

Hamilton is modest about his role in the success of the business. “I had some lucky breaks, which you need in life and the business went from strength to strength,” he says.

When the partners retired in 2008, Hamilton took over the firm and acquired a London architectural practice called EGS at the same time. The next day Lehman Brothers collapsed.

“We took a big gulp when that happened,” says Hamilton. “The construction industry really struggled as a result of the banking crisis but through the recession we managed to grow the business.”

Hamilton, 58, lives in the Selby area with his wife Lesley and two of their four children. These days he gets his thrills from music and his collection of guitars rather than driving at top speeds. “The rallies are in the past,” he says. “These days music is my biggest passion.”

Despite being focused on the growth of Darnton B3, Hamilton also has one eye on retirement, although he’s not there just yet. “The company can date its origins back to the late 19th century and long may it continue,” he says. “I am just a passer-by. We need strong people to take on the business when I retire.”

Fact File

Title: Managing director

Date of birth: March 11, 1958

Education: Holgate Grammar School in Barnsley; HND in civil engineering at Sheffield City Polytechnic

First job: Trainee engineer in the development department for Redfearn National Glass in Barnsley

Favourite holiday destination: Majorca

Favourite film: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Favourite song: Moon River, by Andy Williams

Last book read: A Short History of England, by Simon Jenkins

Car driven: Range Rover Sport and a Porsche 911

Most proud of: My children