Man with a vision of a very special company

Oct 3 2007 by Alistair Houghton, Liverpool Daily Post

Alistair Houghton meets STEVE BURKE, founder of Construction Partnership UK

HE FELL in love with the construction industry as a child, but never believed he was the sort of person to start his own building business.

Yet today, just seven years after taking the plunge and founding Construction Partnership UK, Steve Burke has seen the company rocket out of the starting blocks to turn over about £25m a year.

Burke spent 22 years working for construction giants Birse and Wimpey before teaming up with Stuart Whittle to launch Skelmersdale-based CPUK.

It was a career move Burke had never predicted, but it has proved a great success.

“I’m a cautious sort of bloke, not gung ho, not a flighty fellow,” he said. “It’s in my bones to be loyal and hard working. I wouldn’t have expected me to set up a business.”

But that caution, says Burke, also explains how CPUK has grown in a rapid and controlled way.

He says both he and Whittle decided from the start that they would focus on customer service. They decided not to push their fledgling business to breaking point by taking on over-ambitious contracts, but instead focus only on jobs they knew CPUK could do well and which would turn a profit.

“We don’t have any plans for world domination,” he said.

“We want to keep doing what we’re doing, and do a great job.

“If we think we can take a job, we will. If we think we can’t, we won’t. It’s been a very organised growth plan.

“People have come to us and said ‘We’ve got an opportunity for a £20m job’. We’ve said no because the risk is too high. I don’t want to have all my eggs in one basket – it doesn’t make sense.

“We don’t take work we can’t handle or is beyond our technical capabilities. We don’t take anything on that might damage our reputation.

“If we wanted to let the dog off the leash, we could. But we prefer to keep control.”

The company employs 60 people and works on private sector building projects worth £500,000 to £8m, including residential, office and industrial schemes.

The company is working on a £6m Hillcrest Homes scheme to convert historic Sandiway Cottage, in Hartford, into apartments, and build houses in the grounds.

In August, it secured a £7.5m deal with Taggart Homes for a new residential development in Delph, near Saddleworth Moor.

Perhaps CPUK’s most potentially exciting development is its work on the pilot Peel Business Space office design and build scheme in Salford Quays.

The £4m contract to build Pacific Way Digital Park is expected to be the first of many as Peel plans to roll out the concept across the country, and Burke says CPUK’s long-term partnership with Peel could give it a platform to spread CPUK’s name outside its North West base.

“It’s a £4m scheme and hopefully there are more in the pipeline,” he said. “It will enable us to get continuous improvement and iron out any design glitches, come up with new ideas and get the supply chain going.

“In terms of what we’re doing with Peel, there’s talk of something in Doncaster.

“When the time is right and the job is right, possibly we’ll do it.”

Burke says the company has never looked for public sector work before, but has recently become an NHS-approved constructor and may expand its work in the area.

He is proud that CPUK’s drive for customer service means most of its contracts are now won through negotiation rather than tender.

CPUK’s first contracts were won in competition, but Burke says that as its reputation has spread, people have started seeking it out.

“The strategy of the company is that we ultimately concentrate on providing exceptional service,” he said. “I want us to be better than any other contractor. I’m sure everybody says that but I really mean it. We’ve got to where we are by doing that.

“Look at CRC North, who we did our first residential scheme for in 2002.

“They were typical three-storey apartments. We won that job in competition and since then we’ve negotiated six jobs.

“We build on connections. The architect of the second CRC scheme introduced us to Hillcrest, and so on.

“We’re now looking for like-minded companies who are prepared to play the game the way we want to play it. They come to us now.

“Taggart Homes is a £7.5m project. They appointed us. There’s a bit of a reputation going before us now.”

Burke says he “wasn’t particularly comfortable” with the idea of having a company mission statement, but says he has one guiding principle.

“Working for this company and with this company will be an absolute pleasure,” he said.

“It sounds corny, but it’s in my heart every day when I’m dealing with staff members, clients and subcontractors.

“People want to work for and with us.

“For me, it would be the same if I was running a pub. It’s not rocket science.”

Burke joined Wimpey after leaving school.

“I wanted to go into construction because I liked watching machines dig holes,” he said.

He moved into quantity surveying, working at Newcastle then Sellafield and Liverpool.

After 10 years, and having qualified as a senior quantity surveyor and had his second son, he moved on to Birse.

After 12 years at Birse, Burke was regional director, leading its Manchester office, with a turnover of up to £50m a year and leading projects, including the redevelopment of Old Trafford.

But by 2000 Burke says he found himself suffering “Millennium fever”.

“The spark had gone,” he said. “I didn’t feel I was earning my money.

“I’d always said to my wife that if the time came when the fun had gone I’d move on, so I decided to do something on my own.

“A couple of business acquaintances who I spoke to agreed to become shareholders. They knew somebody else who might be interested – that was Stuart Whittle.

“We had a vision to create a construction company that was a bit special.”

As the business kept growing, Burke employed many Birse colleagues to bolster his team. Whittle, whose background is in management and corporate finance with multi-national corporations, and who had stayed in the background in CPUK’s early days, started working at the company full-time two years ago when turnover had hit £15m.

Out of the office, Burke follows Newcastle United and plays five-a-side football with some of his colleagues.

But he is also building a musical reputation as guitarist with rock band The G-Spot Tornadoes, which he formed with fellow parents from his son’s tennis club.

“We played together and we weren’t as bad as anybody thought,” he said.

“Somebody then said ‘Can you play at my 40th’ and it went from there.

“We do it for a laugh. I don’t want to be humping gear round every Friday.”

alistairhoughton

Age: 47

Lives: Parbold, West Lancashire

Family: Married to Jane, sons Tom, 21, Joe, 19 and Edward, 15.

Proudest achievement: Getting the business off the ground and getting it to where it is now has been fantastic. We started from nothing and we’ll be turning over about £25m this year. We’ve got £22m secured for next year.

Business ambition: I want to keep doing what I’m doing – providing exceptional service. In 10 years’ time, people will talk about us in glowing terms. I’m paranoid about making sure the experience our clients have is a good one.