lee marley brickwork

Construction Entrepreneur – Introducing Lee Marley

Lee Marley, 46, is the founder of multi-million-pound nationwide enterprise Lee Marley Brickwork Limited, which he formed in 1997 at just 24 years old. Lee’s business is now one of the UK’s leading integrated brickwork, scaffolding and stone subcontractors, the company turned over £47.1million in 2019. Lee was born in

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Issue 323 : Dec 2024

lee marley brickwork

Lee Marley Brickwork Opens New London Head Office & Graduate Hub in Notting Hill

Lee Marley Brickwork (LMB) is one of the UK’s leading integrated brickwork, scaffolding and stone sub-contractors. With premises already in Reading, Edinburgh, Leeds, and Nottingham, the company are delighted to announce the opening of their new London Head Office conveniently located in Notting Hill. Easily accessible with good transport links, Notting Hill is one of London’s most vibrant and iconic neighbourhoods. The new headquarters operates as the ideal professional space for visiting clients and suppliers, as an effective working & training environment for graduates, and as a head office for key staff. The 3500 square foot premises offer a modern, personable environment with ample space for visiting clients and suppliers to meet with the team and where any problems can be dealt with quickly and efficiently, face to face. The business continues to grow nationally and over the last five years has tripled in size.  Director Lee Marley comments: “With much of the company’s business based in London and the Southeast, Notting Hill is an ideal location not just for managers and graduates, but also for visiting customers and suppliers. We’ve created a professional base and the response from clients so far has been glowing. I am also proud that we are an accredited Investors in People business and firmly believe in the ethos of putting our staff first. I want all of our workforce to believe in a future with Lee Marley and the opening of our new graduate hub is a part of that investment in our team.” Tim McKenna, Managing Director at Dorsey Construction Materials Ltd. says: “I recently visited Lee Marley’s new offices in Notting Hill, and I immediately thought, this is a great location. I was really impressed with how light and airy the whole place was with many workstations around the central area. The conference room was very well equipped and spacious – ideal for CPD presentations etc. Then beyond that there was a chill zone for light refreshment.  I am in and out of lots of offices and this recently refurbished office is easily the best I’ve been to. This office is certainly a breath of fresh air and is most definitely the way forward”.  The state-of-the-art office is ideal for showcasing the company’s work and achievements with a large proportion of the space being made up of glass, brick, and stone, reflective of the very work the company is renowned for. The building has a large boardroom, several informal meeting areas, and plenty of workstations ideal for hot desking or for when graduates and apprentices are office based for inductions and training. Training Manager Christian Hatherall-Good operates the Graduate and Apprenticeship Schemes, organising the rotation and managing the courses. The new London office is used by by students for theory training with small groups of 3-4 students visiting weekly. Graduate Estimator Ben Spyvee comments: “Since joining LMB, I have gained valuable experience from working on live construction jobs and within the estimating department. This has allowed me to build valuable skills and become an important member of the team. Over the 18-month period I have worked for the company I have witnessed a large amount of investment and growth in key areas that have created an improved working environment, most notably being the opening of the new office in Notting Hill. This has provided a more enjoyable and efficient working environment for all involved. The large open spaces, meeting spots and a host of other features has formed a great hub for the company, opening opportunities to host important meetings with clients, colleagues, and suppliers. I am looking forward to the future and hopefully building on all the positives that have already been introduced.” Michael Tame MRICS, Commercial Director at Lee Marley Brickwork says: “As we see natural growth within our business operation it was important to us to create an environment that allows our employees to achieve their full potential. A key passion of ours is our Graduate and Apprenticeship Schemes which promote young talent. The opening of our Notting Hill office will promote a friendly hub for our graduates to base themselves from. The office provides collaborative workspaces, offices and a large boardroom with state-of-the-art conference and presentation software, ideal for online and in-person training.  Our clients are key to the strength of our business, and it is our intention to use this new workspace to invite our clients to and display some of our work, of which we are extremely proud of. We are excited to enter 2022 in such a fortunate position.” For more information, please visit: www.leemarley.com. Lee Marley Brickwork Ltd, currently offers both brickwork and scaffolding apprenticeships and are investing in the next generation of tradesmen into the construction industry.

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Construction Entrepreneur – Introducing Lee Marley

Lee Marley, 46, is the founder of multi-million-pound nationwide enterprise Lee Marley Brickwork Limited, which he formed in 1997 at just 24 years old. Lee’s business is now one of the UK’s leading integrated brickwork, scaffolding and stone subcontractors, the company turned over £47.1million in 2019. Lee was born in Wembley, London, his grandfather was a bricklayer and by the age of 7 Lee knew this was a trade he too wanted to follow. The family moved to Devon when Lee was as a child and it was here that he got his foot on the construction ladder and completed a bricklaying apprenticeship at North Devon College. By the age of 19 he had two employees, one of whom still works for Lee today as a Project Manager! The team kept on growing and in 1995 Lee moved back to London with his family. The firm he was working for went bust but the customer took him on to finish the job, his small business went from virtually nothing to a million-pound turnover in 6 months. By the time he’d hit 25, the business was creating an annual turnover of five million. The company has continued to grow year on year and in 2001 Lee spotted a gap in the market and acquired a failing scaffolding business providing his clients with a one stop shop. The business has survived two recessions and Lee has learned valuable lessons along the way, looking ahead at forward workloads, splitting jobs across the sectors and how not to put all your eggs in one basket! Over the years they have worked on some exciting and high-profile projects and some of Lee’s major achievements in the industry include the Olympic athletes’ village, Eton College, Belmarsh Prison, Reading Station and The Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre in Nottinghamshire. However, Lee is very much a believer that you shouldn’t forget about the “bread and butter” residential building work and the more sectors the business has, the more outlets you have got to keep the business going. Lee’s righthand man Dan Clarkson partnered in the business in 2011 and has helped drive the company forward creating a new client base and developing customer relationships. Since Dan joined, the company have worked for more tier 1 contractors and the business has flourished. They have grown the scaffolding business from £1m a year to £10m a year turnover and the business as a whole from £14m to £47m a year. The company operate nationwide with clients across residential, commercial and public sector (MoD, MoJ, rail, and education etc.) Services include masonry, scaffolding and stonework. In 2015 and in order to meet the nationwide demand of their key blue-chip clients, the business expanded to Scotland and now works on projects across the Central Belt, between Glasgow and Edinburgh. In Lee’s driven style the company went from doing no business in Scotland, to securing the largest masonry package in the country within 4 years. Having trained as an apprentice bricklayer himself, Lee strongly supports the need to develop the next generation of bricklayers, scaffolders, stone masons and steel fixers. In 2016 he formed a partnership with Brooklands College in Surrey and now runs an Apprentice Programme at the College; 30 young people have been through this scheme so far. The apprenticeship teaches them what is relevant to the market such as modern methods of construction, fire barriers, insulation, IT, signing work off; all the aspects that are often hidden and could go wrong on a job meaning that  when they end up on site they are extremely valuable early on. In 2018 one of the apprentices, Tyler Pearce, was awarded Apprentice of the Year at the Construction News Specialist Awards. The Lee Marley Apprentice programme was awarded Apprentice Initiative of the Year at the 2019 Constructing Excellence SECBE Award 2019. The company also brings on apprentice and trainee scaffolders. Other accolades include the company being featured in the Sunday Times Profit Track 100, which ranks Britain’s private companies with the fastest-growing profits in 2019. They were also awarded Specialist Brickwork Contractor of the Year at the 2019 Brick Awards. This is their third win in six years having won in 2014 and 2017 also. Lee is proud to be investing in not only his company but in the future of the industry as a whole and the company also run a graduate programme at Reading University which they set up a few years ago, supporting young quantity surveyors and construction managers  on their journey to gain RICS or CIOB memberships. With Lee at the helm, the company continues to grow nationally on its journey as the first-choice brickwork, stonework and scaffolding supplier to many of the UK’s leading property developers and construction contractors. Lee is also looking to open another training college dedicated to industry apprenticeships possibly in Scotland or South East England – watch this space!

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