‘Be a bulldog and beat the credit crunch’ says Derby entrepreneur

The go-getting managing director of a Derby building firm that is bucking the national trend by winning big-money contracts and creating new jobs, has advised struggling firms in the construction sector to stop moaning about the economic downturn and to show more of the British bulldog spirit.

Ian Hodgkinson, go-getting managing director of Pride Park-based Hodgkinson Builders (Midlands) Ltd, said this week that building industry leaders should be rolling up their sleeves and battling for work at home and abroad instead of spending time bemoaning their lot.

“Our industry would be in a much healthier state and better prepared to tackle the challenges ahead if more people, including those in high places, stopped complaining and started competing,” said Hodgkinson whose own company recently landed contracts worth almost £2million and now plans to add 20 more bricklayers to its 150-strong team.

His own offices are covered with notices which read: “We can do it. No ifs. No buts.”

“One thing the downturn will do is find out those companies that were not offering a good service before,” says the Derbyshire entrepreneur. “Our success is the result of hard work, effective forward planning and establishing a reputation which has seen us earn a lot of repeat customer business. One result is that we are heading into 2009 with a pretty healthy order book...but we shall still not sit on our backsides.”

Hodgkinson, who was recently honoured for his long and dedicated service to a host of Midlands charities, concedes that the the building trade is currently facing a particularly difficult time but believes that companies will survive if they become meaner and leaner, keep margins tight and are more flexible.

Hodgkinson's, he says, continues to thrive because it is flexible enough to take on almost any construction project - not just in the UK, but also abroad.

Its recent contracts have included prestige work on a factory in Reykjavik, Iceland, a £750,000 deal to provide all the brickwork for a new stadium for Leicester Tigers rugby club, a £500,000 contract to build two blocks at Nottingham Prison and another £500,000 contract for a nursing home in Chesterfield. Hodgkinson is also currently helping to build 12 schools up and down the country.

In recent months, the company has completed contracts for new schools in Derby and Clay Cross, a major extension to a Tesco supermarket in York, a new Sainsbury's store and a leisure centre in Coventry.

Closer to home, the firm has built a plinth at Pride Park Stadium for a memorial to Derby County and England soccer legend Steve Bloomer.

Hodgkinson Builders (Midlands) Ltd was founded in 1990 and last year moved from Ilkeston to purpose-built offices at Pride Park.