'I helped buy Meadowhall - now my firm is transforming Sheffield city centre': Henry Boot CEO Tim Roberts shares his career journey

Before becoming CEO of Sheffield-based Henry Boot in 2020, Mr Roberts worked for property development giant British Land where he was involved in that company’s purchase of Meadowhall in the late 1990s and the subsequent expansion of the shopping centre.

The increasing dominance of Meadowhall led to various attempts to regenerate Sheffield city centre but efforts were frustrated for decades with hopes for a retail-focused redevelopment finally squashed by the fallout from the global financial crisis.

It ultimately led to a change of tack by Sheffield City Council, which took the lead on a £470m regeneration scheme called Heart of the City less focused on shops and instead also involving new offices, restaurants and repurposed historic buildings.

Henry Boot as a company played a key role in the project – helping to deliver eco-friendly office building Elshaw House, Europe’s largest purpose-built food hall Cambridge Street Collective, housing development Kangaroo Works and the award-winning Pound’s Park outdoor space.

The company has also demonstrated its own belief in the regeneration project by moving into new offices in the city centre from its previous base in the Sheffield suburbs and have been based in the Isaac Building since October 2023.

Mr Roberts says it is good to see how Sheffield city centre has changed for the better over the past few years.

"It seemed to me at one stage the city got too involved in really denying Meadowhall was there and resisting it and trying to just promote the city centre,” he reflects.

“You can’t do that – you have to accept Meadowhall is a high-quality, successful shopping centre and work out how you are going to build on that rather than compete against it. The Heart of the City scheme is a really good step forward.”

Mr Roberts says the move from the company’s previous suburban headquarters at Banner Cross Hall has proven to be “really successful”, with its previous home being developed into a specialist school.

"We’d owned it for 90 years but we sold it because it was very hard for us to work out how we could create a modern environment for people to work in, where people are encouraged to come in because they will get the most out of a workplace,” he explains.

"It is very hard to do that in a listed building. Staff feel the move to the city centre has been a good move. It makes us feel a bit more connected to what is happening to the city and it is important for businesses not just to internalise. We respond to our environment, which is the cities that we work in.”

But while Henry Boot is looking to the future, the company’s impressive history remains on display – quite literally.

The interview with Mr Roberts takes place in the new office’s Pinewood room – named after the long-standing company’s project to build the now world-famous Pinewood Studios in the 1930s.

A display on the wall of the room explains how Charles Boot, the son of company founder Henry Boot, turned a Buckinghamshire country club into a major film studio with the hope of matching the success of Hollywood. The gamble paid off, with Pinewood going on to become the filming location for multiple James Bond movies and many other hits, remaining in operation to this day now under lease to Disney.

Roberts says that is only one small part of the story of the company, which was founded in 1886.

"It’s been going for nearly 140 years and we are one of the oldest listed companies on the full Stock Exchange. We were listed just after the First World War.”

The firm’s evolution over the years has seen it develop into several different divisions including Hallam Land, which is one of the largest land banks in the country; a development business focused on industrial premises called HBD and a Yorkshire-based premium housebuilding arm called Stonebridge which is rolling out to other areas of the country. Henry Boot is also a contractor at a regional level in Yorkshire, delivering projects like parts of the Heart of the City scheme.

There are around 550 people in the overall business, with 90 based in the head office in Sheffield and a further 100 in nearby Dronfield.

Mr Roberts says: “Whether it is land promotion, industrial development or premium homes, everything we do is high quality. We want to look after customers, we want to work to a high standard, we are bothered about the environment and our suppliers. We are a responsible business and we are doing it because we think it makes good business sense and have been doing that for decades.”

Taking over at Henry Boot represented something of a South Yorkshire homecoming for Mr Roberts, who was brought up in Tickhill near Doncaster.

He explains: "I left to go to university, graduated in the late 80s and went down to London because that’s where all the jobs were. I remember thinking I will be down there for two or three years and I stayed down there for 30 years.”

He rose to the rank of executive director at British Land during his time with that business and says helping deliver the famous ‘Cheesegrater’ skyscraper in London was among his proudest achievements.

In his current role for Henry Boot, Mr Roberts says he now spends most of his time working in Sheffield and has a flat in the Kelham Island area of the city in addition to his family home near London.

Mr Roberts says it has been fantastic to be back in Yorkshire.

"Henry Boot as a business has commercial acumen, a strong work ethic, decent values and ambition; those are basic ingredients but I think there are some of the ingredients that folk in Yorkshire will recognise. Yorkshire has a lot to offer.”

Becoming CEO in early 2020 ended up as something of a baptism of fire for Mr Roberts as his initial plans for the business were swiftly overtaken by events in the form of the Covid pandemic.

"It was an interesting time to become CEO,” he says, with a certain amount of understatement.

"In January and February I was thinking of my 100-day plan and what I might do over five years. Then in March, it became about making sure Henry Boot got through this and our people were safe. We carried on building, carried on with construction sites, because that is what the government wanted us to do. Both the government and industry organised themselves very quickly.

"We generated a lot of cash and paused investing money. We didn’t take money from the Government and we came out of Covid with a very strong balance sheet and pent-up ambition.

"The responsibility doesn’t weigh me down, it fires me up. I’m very proud to lead Henry Boot and we are proud of our Yorkshire heritage and Sheffield heritage. Sheffield does need some long-standing, successful companies and Henry Boot is that.”

Mr Roberts says the company is “well on track” to meet is growth targets despite the various economic challenges of recent years.

In a similar approach to the Pinewood development of the 1930s, Mr Roberts says the company takes calculated risks.

“We buy land without planning, we develop buildings without occupiers, we build homes without having sold them. We are taking operational and market risk but we don’t layer on that lots of financial risk. We are not highly geared.

"I’ve seen two major recessions created by cycles and a third one created by Covid. You’ve got to be in a position to get through those ups and downs.

"You can either moan and groan about uncertainty or you walk towards it and build a robust business.

"Fundamentally we want to grow and have done so every year over the last five years. As we grow, we understand there will be some years where we make more money than other years but over the medium-term we want to maintain our return on capital employed. We do that providing high-quality property that is in demand. Over the last two or three years, we’ve pretty well maintained our property sales.

“We measure our growth by capital employed – at the end of 2024, we were at £439m and in 2021 we said we wanted to be at £500m. We are well on track and once we get to £500m we will reset it.

"I’m very proud of the way the business has managed to keep growing, stick to its values and stick to investing in the future.”