Profile: Peter Hindley

It’s the first time we’ve met but I can already tell the laidback chief executive of housebuilder Keepmoat Homes would be more at home in an open shirt with rolled-up sleeves. He looks visibly relieved when the photographer leaves and he can take them off again.

Hindley has run the Doncaster-based business for the last 10 years. The homes division was part of a larger Keepmoat group, which included a regeneration business, until earlier this year.

In March, the group split up when French energy services firm ENGIE bought the regeneration firm for £330m from owners TDR and Sun Capital.

Hindley, 55, says the deal gave the remaining homes business a clarity of focus. “Its really clear what we are and what we do now,” he says.

He describes Keepmoat Homes as a house builder with a difference. The business predominantly builds homes for first time buyers under the age of 35 on brownfield sites within a long-term partnership framework, usually joining forces with local authorities.

The company is driven by volume both in the number of schemes it builds and the number of houses on each scheme. Its average house selling price is £152,000. “On average, we’ll build out 60 homes per scheme per year, which is larger than a traditional house builder would do,” says Hindley.

The homes business has doubled in size since 2014. Its last published accounts for the year to the end of March 2016 show turnover rose 28.3 per cent to £336.6m. Its next accounts are due to be published in August but for the current financial year, it expects turnover to reach around £630m. “Compare our growth to a traditional plc housebuilder, they are either looking at flatline output or possibly five per cent growth per annum,” he says.

The business employs 950 staff, including 266 in Yorkshire across the Doncaster, Wath-Upon-Dearne and Leeds offices.

In the year to the end of March 2016, Keepmoat delivered 416 new homes. The number for the last financial year, according to Hindley, was 3,000.

TDR and Sun Capital, which still own Keepmoat Homes, bought the business in 2014. “They have been a really positive force for the business,” Hindley says. “Every pound we have made in profit has been put back into the business to continue growth.”

Plans for this year involve building 4,200 homes across the country, including 1,000 in Yorkshire, through its nine regional offices across Yorkshire, the North East, North West, Midlands, South East and Scotland.

“The next area for growth for us is the South West,” says Hindley.

By 2021, Keepmoat hopes to be building 6,500 homes a year, continuing its upward trajectory.

Despite the economic and political uncertainty, Hindley says its sales rates are ‘solidly holding up’ across the country. “We are really pleased that sales remain stable,” he says. “Things like Help to Buy are great tools that have supported our buyer profile in particular.”

Another area of growth for the company is modular house building. Earlier this year Keepmoat teamed up with offsite specialist Elliott Group to launch a new affordable modular house building business, Ilke Homes, partly to offset the skills shortage in the construction sector.

So far it has built its first demonstrator units, which are on display near London City Airport. Its second demonstrator homes, which will be put on a site in Doncaster, are due to be built in early October. Production will begin properly by the end of next March.

Instead of building one ‘super factory’, it intends to set up a network of smaller factories around the country which can produce about 500 homes a year each.

This is the company’s second foray into modular building after an unsuccessful attempt due to ‘bad timing’ around the time of the 2008 financial crash. But Hindley is confident of success this time.

“There is a sea change in appetite both at a government level and a local authority level,” he says.

Looking to the future, he adds: “I don’t see us losing all the traditional skills. I think modular building will sit alongside traditional building.”

Born and brought up in Barnsley, Hindley went on to gain an HND in construction from Sheffield Polytechnic.

“I started off doing a degree but I didn’t work hard enough in my first year so I dropped onto the HND and gave myself a kick up the backside,” he says. “In truth, it’s one of the best things that could have happened to me. I made sure nothing like that ever happened again.”

He went on to become a management trainee at construction firm Alfred McAlpine before following his boss to Keepmoat in 1986, working in the construction and commercial departments.

After 10 years he became regional managing director and after another decade he became chief executive.

He currently lives in Doncaster with his wife, Bev. They have a son, Ben, who works in one of Keepmoat’s regional offices.

In his spare time Hindley is an avid motoring enthusiast and enjoys taking part in events in his 2003 TVR Tuscan with Ben and friends.

Having spent the last three decades at Keepmoat, Hindley remains passionate about the company. “I feel genuinely blessed I can do a job where I can come to work and really enjoy what I do,” he says. “I’ve got a life outside of the business but the success of the company matters to me. I’m like a stick of rock. Snap me in half and it’ll still say Keepmoat in there.”

Peter Hindley Fact File

Title: Chief executive of Keepmoat Homes

Date of birth: June 6, 1962

Education: The Oaks Comprehensive School in Kendray, Barnsley; HND in construction at Sheffield Polytechnic

First job: Holding a stop sign at roadworks in Barnsley

Favourite holiday destination: The Rocky Mountains

Favourite film: Swordfish

Favourite song: Sultans of Swing, by Dire Straits

Last book read: Good to Great, by Jim Collins

Car driven: BMW

Most proud of: Seeing the business grow under the regional teams. On a personal level, my son and my wife.