Brick by brick

Lee Marley Brickwork Limited has a mulit-million pound turnover and and sits comfortably in the Sunday Times fastest-growing annual profit companies in the UK. We meet Lee Marley, who tells us how it all began and what the future holds for his aspirational company

Kids often say the funniest things, but sometimes they really do know what they’re talking about. For example, if you asked a seven-year-old Lee Marley what he wanted to be when he grew up, you could forget fireman, footballer or film star. The young Londoner was clear his future would involve construction. Inspiration might have come from watching the ongoing development of the housing estate he lived on. His grandfather being a builder definitely had an impact.

Today, Lee is in charge of Lee Marley Brickwork Limited, the company he founded in 1997. Turning over £47.1million last year alone, that number earned the firm a spot on the Sunday Times Profit Track 100, which ranks UK companies in terms of fastest-growing annual profit. That success has been long winded, too. Within five years the core business was bringing in work to the tune of £5million annually, so in 2001 Lee took a chance on the acquisition of a scaffolding business.

A veritable one-stop shop was created, and now the Lee Marley portfolio of landmark projects includes Olympic villages, Eton College, Belmarsh Prison, Reading Railway Station and Nottinghamshire’s National Rehabilitation Centre. Lee is quick to point out the impact Dan Clarkson has had on this ever-expanding client base, his business partner since 2011 and longtime right hand man before that. “Watching a building grow, it’s something that still excites me and grabs my interest,” he replies when asked about that childhood spent dreaming of building a construction empire, before explaining one of the biggest challenges in realising that goal was being taken seriously up against established firms in the early days. “When I was 23 I did have a lack of confidence and belief in myself. At first things felt like old school generations were looking down on me, but my confidence soon grew as people saw I could deliver.” In many ways this mirrors Lee’s experience setting up in the scaffolding market, despite the main business long cementing solid credentials. Different specialisms have different market leaders, so the new side of the firm was very much a challenger brand and needed to prove itself.

“I’ve always worked alongside scaffolders and appreciated how technical the job is,” he says. “I knew two really good scaffolders I’d worked with but

could see them struggling; whilst they were great scaffolders, they just weren’t good businessmen. “At the time it was very difficult to be taken seriously. Even now, despite the fact that we are turning over £12 million in this sector and have 150 scaffolders on board, we still have to prove ourselves because we have brickwork in our name and not scaffolding. “It took me a long time to build the right team and I have a great deal of respect for this industry. At first I totally underestimated the amount of equipment needed, finding the right staff, project management, safety and design.

“It takes a massive amount of investment and these contracts are huge, it’s so important to build the right team.” Lee is right to be proud. The ‘brickwork and scaffold’ meal deal completed its first 20 storey tower five years ago, and has been going from strength to strength since inception. He is currently working on a 27-floor high rise in Park Royal, and The Embassy Gardens project in Vauxhall — two statement builds even among London’s notoriously bold and uncompromising modern cityscape and landmark undertakings that, earlier this year, were under threat from the outbreak of COVID-19, resulting global pandemic and economic fallout. “Initially it was very scary,” Lee says, quickly revealing his remarkably upbeat outlook for the mid and long-term future, and belief confidence in construction will continue to return. “We are bedded back in and things are returning to some sense of normality, tenders are being let and won and confidence is setting in, especially in the residential market. “For me this is a completely different scenario to the previous recessions when we were concerned that things just wouldn’t recover.

With COVID-19 our concerns have been about when we’re going back to work, not if.” Given his firm’s history — surviving two devastating recessions — Lee’s confidence is understandable. But he’s also shrewd enough to understand that resilience is always dependent on being able to secure the right talent. Hence the highly respected post graduate programme currently running at Reading University and partnership with Surrey’s Brooklands College, something of a payback for the leg up he received from his own apprenticeship.

Keen to instil skills and talent in a new generation, we can only hope they also pick up the work ethic. After months in which talk of tomorrow has been largely dominated by worst case scenarios, it’s reassuring to see the future of UK construction involves such inspiring selfstarting leadership.