How Lanes-I has grown from to over a £100m turnover in less than three years 

Not many companies go from zero to a £110 million turnover in three years. However, with the right opportunity, people and execution, Lanes-i have shown that it is possible.

The Guildford-based firm is a success story of the construction contracting industry, having tapped into the surge in demand that followed the opening up of BT Openreach's network by Ofcom in 2016.

The Ofcom ruling saw a flood of new operators, including Cityfibre, Giganet and HyperOptic, building new fibre optic networks across the UK using original Openreach infrastructure.

Lanes-i had four employees in 2020, however in its first year it pulled in £16m, turning over £68m in 2021 and now expects its turnover to be over £110m this year.

It is an offshoot of wastewater utility solutions provider, Lanes Group, headquartered in Leeds, itself the largest independent drainage specialist in the UK.

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Lanes-i has now moved into a new office in Guildford and employs 1,000 people with a 50/50 split between contractors and payroll workers.

Managing Director David Roberts said: "When I was working with CityFibre on their roll out I noticed that the contractor pool was very limited.

"There was so much work here and it was such an opportunity. I thought that if we could create a company that can take what Lanes Group does really well for the water industry and offer it to the telecoms industry then it would be well received."

David (pictured) has worked in construction since leaving school and one of his first jobs was working on the Thames Water Ring Main project.

The Channel Tunnel development sucked skills and expertise down to Kent, meaning he was quickly promoted and experienced all sides of the business including commercial and contracts management.

He then went to work for a management consultancy before going out on his own as a consultant for 17 years.

He said: "I've always been optimistic and followed my nose. I got into construction because I liked heavy machinery and didn't really want to work in an office."

Lanes-i has followed the approach taken by its parent Lanes Group of rejecting conflict, instead favouring a partnership approach that is one of the reasons, says David, behind the company's rapid growth rate.

He said: "Construction is known for conflict which I think is ridiculous and a waste of energy.

"We utterly reject that philosophy. Everything is about partnering and doing the right thing. If you deliver on your promises in good faith, people will be happy.”

A company's culture can be initiated from the top, however, for it to be enacted at every point of a transaction, it comes down to people and this can only be achieved if the management team is fully bought in.

David said: "If I hire you to do something, why would I tell you how to do it? I would rather judge you by the results that you deliver, how happy your team is, how many of them are leaving and how well you are managing that team.

"I was trusted when I started out and I want to find someone to eventually replace me. I want to nurture our management team but give them enough space to do what they do best.

"Command and control is no way to grow someone."

David says his own management style is at odds with what you would expect to see in the construction industry.

He said: "I see no point in shouting and screaming at people. No one goes to work to deliberately make a mistake. I have tried to create an atmosphere where people know my door is always open.

"I try to be as approachable as possible and smile a lot. I don't want to be the ogre in the office that everyone should be scared of.

"As a managing director you have to be a constant, no matter what you are feeling."

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Brexit and Covid have led to an acute shortage of skilled construction workers with many in the trade now trying to tempt workers in from other professions.

David said the pressure on recruitment is now easing as we move further away from the pandemic, however problems remain.

He said: "There is a phenomenal demand for infrastructure work at the minute, so labour is in short supply and skilled labour, in particular, is an increasingly rare commodity.

"There is no use whining about it, you have got to meet it head on by setting up your own training schools, investing in training and taking people out of the industries that they are in.

"One of our friendly competitors has had some success in getting nail technicians to become fibre splicers. They are used to working on close detail which is ideal for jointing fibre optic cables that are not much bigger than a human hair."

Lanes-i has an impressive record when it comes to staff retention with its attrition rate at a third of the industry average.

This, David says, it's down in no small part to the company putting its staff welfare front and centre.

"This industry is based around word-of-mouth. People know how much you pay, if you pay on time and how they will be treated” he added.

"All our construction teams have Mercedes-Benz Sprinter vans with on-board toilets, they have good equipment and the right protective gear.

"We give people a career path. They can come in as an unskilled labourer, perform well and then go up another pay level after a certain period of time."

The government has set a target for completing the fibre roll out to 85 percent of homes by 2025 and the firm is turning its attention to what comes next.

The eradication of new petrol cars from the UK's forecourts by 2030 and proliferation of Electric Vehicles (EV) is an opportunity that David thinks Lanes-i is well placed to capitalise on.

He said: "I think we will still be picking up fibre works beyond 2030. The target for the government was 2025 and it could still happen but it will be very challenging. There is a lot of hard-to-reach housing that won't be connected without subsidy, for example”.

"We are moving into power as we believe that it is an industry that needs our culture and ethos to get things done.

"There is a big energy requirement and we are interested in connecting large facilities to the grid."