LDC Top 50 2024
Brinsley Sheridan
Founder
RE:GEN Group
Brinsley Sheridan played football for Bradford City before pivoting into construction and training as a quantity surveyor. “It was a culture shock to sit at a desk all day, but it felt like the start of a new chapter,” he says. “I’ve never been afraid of stepping back to move forwards.”
He started Sunderland-based RE:GEN Group in 2019, working with housing associations and councils to build, improve and modernise social housing. The company also runs an academy scheme, offering six-week construction boot camps and free driving lessons. “We want to make a difference by helping social housing tenants into work and combating the construction skills crisis,” says Sheridan.
We want to make a difference by helping social housing tenants into work and combating the construction skills crisis.”
Q&A
What was your personal aim when you started the business?
When I was 16, I did a two-week work experience stint at a construction firm called Frank Haslam Milan. The commercial director, Lee Francis, told me I should give him a ring if football didn’t work out. When I was released from Bradford City four years later, I made the call and started working for him. Over the next decade, the company was bought out twice and became very corporate and bureaucratic. I saw a gap in the market to do things differently. When my wife fell pregnant, I thought: “Now’s the time to start my own business and provide for my family.”
What was the turning point for the business?
After a year of battling away, we won our first big tenders with Karbon Homes and Darlington Borough Council. That enabled us to hire three industry heavyweights, including my old boss, Lee Francis, who’s now our CEO. They brought connections, clout and credibility, and the business skyrocketed. Turnover jumped from £5.1m in 2021 to £40.4m last year, and we’re on track to top that again.
What’s your ambition?
The five-year plan is to reach £350m in turnover and give back to the communities in which we work. We’ve donated around £30,000 to The Bread and Butter Thing, which runs mobile food banks in low-income areas, and our staff recently gave out food packages at the new hub at Pennywell Neighbourhood Centre. The ultimate aim is to set up a RE:GEN Foundation.
