New skills for modern methods of construction

An innovative modular North East housebuilder is expanding the business by recruiting a team of people with a diverse skillset.

CoreHaus, which recently set up a manufacturing facility in a 20,000 sq ft unit on Jade Business Park, Murton, near Seaham in County Durham recently assembled its senior team and is now steadily recruiting the workforce.

But the team are not only the usual workforce with brickies and skills that many housebuilders turn to – rather, they often have technical and engineering backgrounds too.

Joining the management team are Robin Gill as technical manager, along with Dan Selby, as production manager. Robin has operated as a principle engineer with more than 42 years’ experience in multiple sectors ranging from power generation to high-performance aerospace manufacturing and process development. Dan Selby is a senior operations manager with a strong technical background in construction. He has around 17 years’ experience in modern methods of construction.

Scott Bibby, MD of CoreHaus, said: “Both Robin and Dan bring a wealth of different experience to their roles. Dan’s background is more directly related to the modular construction environment whereas Robin brings a technical engineering, product quality and process control to the team.

“We’re doing something different in the modular housebuilding sector and need people who think and work differently. Our production and designs draw on modern, technical skills and innovation. We have a real opportunity to break the current mould, bring about change in housebuilding and construction.”

Due to the nature of its steel-frame build, CoreHaus will adopt a different production methodology to most housebuilding. Technicians will be needed in the new factory who have engineering qualifications and are agile at problem solving in a technical environment.

Scott added: “We are recruiting people from different industries to create a diverse workforce with a growth mindset. We need engineering skills and construction experience combined with a creative way of thinking.”

This philosophy has been applied to the recruitment of the first five technicians – Chris Archer, Adam Willis, Kenny Walker, Peter Rowe and Paul Seager.

For instance, Paul Seager joins CoreHaus as a fully qualified domestic gas and plumbing engineer having also worked in the rail manufacturing industry. Peter Rowe has a varied background predominantly within high level engineering companies such as Maclaren Racing and Hitachi. Kenny has construction experience combined with military aviation and manufacturing. Adam joins fresh from a lightweight steel manufacturer with experience in timber-frame modular construction too. Chris brings a wealth of experience from a variety of roles within construction and engineering.

Scott is liaising with Derwentside College to discuss the kind of multi-skilled young people he would like to recruit, train, and develop going forwards.

“We’re looking for a new breed of technicians as well as apprentices with a different mindset. We want people to love the job, to really want to come to work and get a buzz from the work they will be doing,” he explained.

CoreHaus is a joint-venture company between Carlton & Co Group, the parent company behind North East based Homes by Carlton, and national social enterprise Fusion21, specialists in public procurement for the built environment.

The five-year plan will see CoreHaus producing around 1,000 modular homes a year, which will result in more than 100 people working across the business. These homes will be built using modern methods of construction (MMC) which will result in high quality homes, built faster, with engineered precision and expected lower energy bills.