Harworth Group Gears For Further Growth With Key Regional Appointments

Harworth Group plc announces that it has appointed three directors to head up its Development operations in each of its core regions of the Midlands, North West and Central (Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire) as it continues to sustainably grow its business.

In the Midlands, David Cockroft will join Harworth as Regional Director for the Midlands on 7 January. David was previously the Director of City Centre & Major Projects Development at Coventry City Council and has over 25 years’ experience in regeneration and brownfield development, having previously worked for the likes of St Modwen, Lovell Homes and English Partnerships. David will spearhead Harworth’s growth into the West Midlands, building on Harworth’s acquisition of the former Ironbridge power station in Shropshire in June 2018 as it looks to acquire further strategic sites as well as developing existing sites such as Harworth’s Coalville development – the delivery of over 2,000 new housing plots over the next 15 years.

Harworth has also appointed Steven Knowles as Regional Director for the North West. Steven joined Harworth in September 2018 having previously worked for St Modwen Properties plc for 14 years, most recently as their North West Regional Director. Steven has already made his first acquisition as Regional Director, with the purchase in October of the 56-acre Moss Nook site in St Helens that has an outline planning consent for 900 new homes. He will be responsible for purchasing new strategic sites in the region as well as developing existing sites such as Logistics North in Bolton.

Harworth has also promoted Peter Henry to become Regional Director for its largest region of Central (Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Lincolnshire). Peter was formally Harworth’s Director of Development and had responsibility for the identification, delivery and management of its fourteen major project sites including Waverley in Rotherham – Yorkshire’s largest ever brownfield redevelopment. Waverley will remain one of Peter’s key development sites, in addition to major developments such as Simpson Park in Nottinghamshire (1500 new homes), Thoresby in Nottinghamshire (800 new homes and 250,000 sq. ft of employment space) and Prince of Wales in Pontefract, West Yorkshire (917 new homes and 265,000 sq. ft of commercial space).

New Directors Appointed by Harworth
Pictured above from left to right: Steven Knowles, David Cockroft and Peter Henry

Harworth’s Income Generation team – the management of its directly developed commercial space, its business parks, renewable energy sites and the sale of minerals and aggregates – remains unchanged, continuing to be headed by Ian Ball as Executive Director. This team will continue to focus on asset managing Harworth’s existing portfolio including the direct development of new commercial space, whilst also executing an active churn strategy of disposing mature assets with limited further value or income growth potential alongside the sale of low-yielding agricultural land and property with little development potential, in order to build Harworth’s recurring income base to continue to cover the business’ operational costs and as a key source of Net Asset Value growth.

To support both parts of the business, Tim Love has also been promoted to Director of Central Services to bring together Harworth’s Strategic Land, Engineering and Building Delivery functions as a further measure of Harworth improving its operational efficiency.

Owen Michaelson, Chief Executive Officer, commented:

“The strategic evolution of the business and our expected activities going forward means that the move towards a regional structure is essential for the business and I am absolutely delighted with each of these new appointments.

Each regional team will be responsible for the acquisition, promotion and development of all sites in their region, and building the local networks and relationships which are an essential element of the new business model.  We believe that this will generate greater management cohesion between the acquisition and delivery functions and allow each regional team to become embedded in their respective local market, further increasing the profile of the business and supporting our efforts to secure further developable land and property to grow the business in a sustainable manner.”