Thurston Group strengthens team to enhance operational excellence

We’re pleased to announce two promotions and two new hires, as we refresh our structure and strengthen our team to enhance delivery, support growth, and maintain operational excellence.

In line with our ambition to reach £100m in turnover within the next six years, the promotions and appointments are set to support the company’s plans to scale while continuing to deliver best in class buildings, cabins, and structures for specialist industries.

Joining us as operations director after 5 months in the role on an interim basis, is Hayley Richardson. Hayley’s remit includes heading up a team of four senior leaders across the areas of design and technical, commercial, construction, and pre-construction.

Bringing in experience from a variety of industries, Hayley has worked in finance roles across the construction, education, healthcare and charitable sectors for over 30 years, at both executive level and board level in project manager, director, and financial officer positions.

Having spent the past few months involved with Thurston, assessing areas for improvement and business success, she brings an understanding of the delivery journey from the customer viewpoint, providing valuable insight as Thurston improves its processes.

Speaking about joining us in a new permanent role, Hayley said: ““After spending a few months getting to know the business and the brilliant team, I’m delighted to be joining Thurston on a permanent basis.

“Everything I’ve seen so far from Matt and the team to drive improvement has been really positive, and I know there’s plenty of hunger to continue improving, to help us meet our ambitious growth plans.

“As we aim to become the number one modular manufacturer in the country, I’m keen to use my personal insights of the customer journey to help deliver consistently high-quality products and projects to our clients”, she continued.

Alongside the appointment of Hayley, we’ve refreshed our structure to help us scale more effectively and deliver a consistently high standard of products and projects to our customers.

Reporting to Hayley as part of the new structure will be Marc Johnson, who has been promoted from technical director to the role of head of design and technical; and Gary Robinson, moving from construction director to the role of pre-construction director.

Speaking about his promotion, Marc said: “It’s a privilege to head up the design team at such a pivotal time for Thurston. We’re strengthening our design capabilities and embedding smarter processes that will allow us to respond faster and deliver even more value to our customers. I’m looking forward to helping shape the next chapter.”.

On his new role, Gary said: “Moving into this role gives me the opportunity to influence the early stages of every project – making sure we get it right from the outset. Strong pre-construction planning is essential to how we deliver at pace, and I’m proud to be part of a team that’s setting the bar higher across the board.”.

The restructuring is rounded out with Joanne Ainslie and Simon Shirtliffe joining the commercial team as estimators.

Joining the team, and also reporting to Richardson, will be Mike Langton, who has joined as head of commercial.

Mike brings vast experience of both traditional and modular construction and will look to drive performance and revenue as Thurston aims to hit its ambitious turnover targets.

Talking about his role at Thurston, Mike said: “Joining Thurston at a time of real momentum is exciting. With a strong order book and ambitious plans, we have a real opportunity to grow the commercial function into a driving force behind the business. I’m focused on building the right commercial strategies that support long-term partnerships and profitable growth.”

Speaking of the new appointments and promotions, our managing director, Matt Goff, said: “I’m really pleased to welcome Hayley to Thurston permanently, after her brilliant work over the past year in helping us expand our service offering to the education and healthcare sectors. I’m also excited to welcome Mike, whose expertise spans both traditional and modular construction.

“This new structure, underpinned by quality and led by a first-class team, is designed not only to meet the growing demands of the business, but to unlock internal development opportunities and create the capacity we need to thrive as a larger business, as we set out to meet our ambition of being the modular manufacturer of choice in the UK.”

If you’d like to work with our top team on modular projects in sectors ranging all the way from education through to offshore, please get in touch, and we’ll design a quality solution for your needs.