Festive focus: Bdaily catches up with Desco ops director Kevin Hall

It’s that time of year again. The Christmas rush. The manic high-street shopping. The alarming convenience of one-click online purchases. The nail-biting potential for drama at the staff party.

All that aside, December’s a time when we’re able to reflect on our achievements and failures of the last 12 months, and look ahead with a bit more foresight and wisdom than we had this time last year.

The Festive Focus series we’re running this month will look to highlight all that and more. Throughout each week in December, we’ll be sharing insights from key businesspeople in the North East, Yorkshire & Humber and London.

Today we have Kevin Hall, operations director at Desco.

Can you introduce yourself and your business to our readers?

“We’re an MEP consulting engineer with offices across the UK, Middle and Far East, working in a variety of construction sectors.

“I’m responsible for operations across the business and based in the Sunderland head office (home town) after recently returning from six years in Qatar running the Middle East region.”

What was your company’s biggest achievement of the year?

“We’ve been working hard to integrate into a larger engineering group and started to see some benefits, which has enabled us to maintain our position in the North East region with some prestigious appointments for Durham University, Newcastle Helix (Newcastle Science Park), University of York, whilst also expanding in London and securing the £700m redevelopment of Olympia which will be delivered in 2019.”

How would you approach 2018 differently, given the chance?

“We’ve had to react to the unpredictability in the UK economy this year created by Brexit, which has meant a number of our clients delaying schemes. We should have perhaps concentrated more on some sectors that are unaffected by Brexit (data centres / international sport).”

What are your company’s plans for the new year?

“We’re hoping for some controlled growth as we see continued benefit from the larger group synergies and some further complimentary acquisitions, with some strategic recruitment already planned for January.”

What’s your favourite Christmas song?

“Torn between The Pogues, Fairytale of New York, and Slade, Merry Xmas Everyone.”

Looking to promote your product/service to SME businesses in your region? Find out how Bdaily can help →