Deveron Homes

Source: Construction Digital

Date :14/11/2007 11:14:52

Building from the grass roots

Deveron Homes’ Lynne Holburn speaks about the importance of forming good relationships with the local community and the ‘powerhouse’ Kevin Keegan

Written by Sam Wright and Produced by Nicholas Davies

Since its inception in 2002, Huntly, Aberdeenshire- based Deveron Homes has become one of the region’s leading house developers, with sales growing to over £20 million in the last year. The company attributes much of this meteoric development of its reputation to the communities that it works in, and admits that it tries hard to maintain these relationships.

One of its most notable schemes is the Kevin Keegan Football Academy, one of the many subjects that the company’s amiable Sales and Marketing Developer, Lynne Holburn, was happy to talk about in this interview.

Ms. Holburn has been with the company for just under two years, having worked previously in the media with lifestyle and property magazines. It is this that brought her into contact with major housebuilders and developers such as Deveron.

“Obviously,” she says, regarding her career switch, “this is a completely different industry to work in. I suppose you could say ‘sales is sales’, but here I’ve got a lot more control over what happens to us on a day-to-day basis.”

This hands-on approach – Ms. Holburn admits to being involved in every part of the process, from the sourcing of land to the final sale – has been applied with gusto to improving and maintaining its standing among the public; this is a factor that she describes as “Very, very important.”

“We’re building communities wherever we go,” she explains, “so we feel that we have a vested interest in the local area. We have schools liaison programmes,” she continues, “and we link with local sports clubs and organisations, plus we are a very generous supporter of lots of different community organisations.”

Good connections

It is through their support of one of these organisations, Huntly Football Club, that the company met Kevin Keegan. Ms. Holburn is clearly enthusiastic about the Football Academy scheme and the impact of its figurehead.

“He’s very small!” she jokes. “He’s a real powerhouse of a chap, the kids love him, even though they don’t really know who he is. The dads are just in awe. With what he’s doing, he’s hit it right on the head. I don’t think he particularly cared for football management because he was much too interested in the game, but he’s very good at the Academy and the kids just love him.”

She is keen to stress that the scheme is as much about benefiting the community as the good PR from being involved with such a celebrity.

“The process of selection is about picking the children to go forward to the Academy who would benefit the most,” she points out. “It’s meant to be about confidence building, a bit of risk taking; it’s about much, much more than just who’s good at playing football. And we’re in it for the long haul, too. We would never enter into sponsorship that would be short-term.”

Controversy

One of the most contentious subjects in the construction industry at the moment is Prime Minister Brown’s pledge that every new home will be carbon neutral by 2016. It is obviously an issue that Ms. Holburn has given much thought.

“It’s very easy to give reference to the party line, whatever that might be,” she says. “But unless it’s supported by the government themselves, it’s no good. They should be first out leading the troops. Issuing edicts is all well and good, but what are they going to do to make it easier for us?”

It’s a fair point, and one I am sure most in the industry would agree with. It’s worth stating the obvious by saying that neither Ms. Holburn nor Deveron as a company have a problem with the principles behind the government’s moves, or the shift in public consciousness towards environmental issues. The problem, she says, is that there is a tendency for hysterics that make the situation even more difficult.

“It’s the buzz; that’s the problem,” she explains. “Everybody’s saying you’ve got to be green, but we are at the forefront of it all, as is every other developer. We try our level best, but we’re not into gimmicks. We’re not going to put a windmill on top of every house just to tick a box for the Scottish Executive. It’s got to be profitable and practical, and that’s for everybody, including the purchaser.”

Looking ahead

Despite these issues, the future looks promising for Deveron. The company are about to begin a mixed development project in Peterhead along with a part restoration project in Inverness city, an interesting new departure for the company. Not only this, but the developer is to launch a key new project in Nairn, near Aberdeen, involving over 800 houses and a large amount of infrastructure. Ms. Holburn describes it as “a major coup”, and gives an impressive list of names that the company beat to the deal. She puts much of this down to the skills of directors Gordon Ramsay and David Morrison, the founders of Deveron.

“They have great drive, great vision. They know their business inside out. They’ve got great passion for their business and for the whole property industry, so it’s not hard to see why they’ve been so successful.”

It is this enthusiasm that seems to set Deveron Homes apart from its competitors, although Ms. Holburn is not so keen to distance the company from them in every sense:

“Competition’s a great thing,” she explains. “I love competition because it gives us something to align with. If there’s another developer in a specific area, for instance, you both can feed off of one another. We’re very confident with our product, and its things like this that gives us a little edge.”