Bennie Group Company, Barton Plant Ltd - Construction services

Case Study – Advising on succession planning and subsequently recruiting a Managing Director for a Bennie Group Company – Barton Plant Ltd.

The Bennie Group is a family owned business containing 6 companies.

• Barton Plant: Bulk earthmoving, enabling works construction, landfill, plant hire, recycling, restoration & remediation.
• Bennie Historic: Restoration and conservation of historical buildings.
• Boughton Loan & Turf Management: Producers and suppliers of soils, composts and loam based growing media.
• Brackmills Haulage: Heavy haulage services across the construction industry.
• Midland Fork Lifts: Fork truck hire, sales, service, transport, parts, and operator training.
• Peter Bennie: Quarrying of aggregate & building stone, contract crushing, stone masonry

Established in 1968 the group has a current turnover of £29 million and employs 300.

Our client 

Barton Plant Ltd was originally formed as a plant hire company  developing into a Contractor covering bulk earthmoving, construction services, plant hire, bulk tippers, landfill and recycling. Projects undertaken are valued from £5k to £2 million for a range of private and public sector clients - either directly, or as a sub-contractor. The company employs 75 staff with a £11 million turnover. 

The situation 

Due to bereavement the group is now run by the founder Peter Bennies daughter, Emma Ayres. As part of her ongoing growth and innovation plans Emma needed a succession plan to release more time to work on fulfilling the 5 year plan. After consultation with one of Elliot Marsh’s Directors Emma opted for a release of her time consuming duties of Managing Director of Barton Plant, by recruiting a successor.

The assignment

As Barton Plant is a long established family company, a great deal of consideration was given to the existing team and the cultural mix. To consider the existing management team each manager was individually consulted to form a 360 appraisal of the business needs.  This was fed back, and a brief was formed from the combined thoughts of the management team, Emma Ayres and the Elliot Marsh Director who assisted in the original consultation.

It was then decided a retained headhunt would be required to find the best possible candidate.        

The results 

12 weeks from the start of the orginal consultation a shortlist of 3 suitable applicants was presented to panel of interviewers from the Bennie Group. One individual stood out. An offer extended, accepted and is to date still successfully growing Barton Plant Ltd.

For more details

If you would like to discuss this case study please call 0845 123 1282, or email info@constructionheadhunters.co.uk