When Jody Wilkinson joined Henry Brothers as managing director for Northern Ireland and Scotland in November 2025, it was at an auspicious time for the construction firm. The business had recently reported strong performance, driven by repeat work and key client relationships, with notable growth in both revenue and profitability.

Mr Wilkinson says: “We expect to build on this momentum in the year ahead, with a strong financial position supporting our plans.”

Northern Ireland-based Henry Brothers is seeing continued expansion across its Scottish project portfolio, including the £8.5 million New Army Reserve Centre in Dunfermline, delivered for the Highland Reserve Forces and Cadets Association. Officially opened by Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, the modern facility brings together the Regimental Headquarters of 154 (Scottish) Regiment RLC, 239 (Fife) Transport Squadron, and the Dunfermline Detachment of The Black Watch Battalion Army Cadet Force.

The development, completed late last year, represents a strategic investment in the Volunteer Estate, streamlining operations and enhancing efficiency, with state-of-the-art amenities including a large open-plan office, drill hall, mess facilities, and on-site accommodation.

This underpins the family-owned company’s positive prospects as it celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. “As we have people here with 50 years already under their belt, I’m still very much the newbie,” laughs Mr Wilkinson.

He joined the company from AECOM, the American multinational infrastructure consulting firm where he had been a director and head of technical practice for Europe and India, based in Belfast.

A Fellow of both the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and the Association of Project Managers, he has more than 20 years’ experience in managing international teams, delivering complex infrastructure initiatives and developing project and cost management capabilities.

So, how has he found his first few months at Henry Brothers? “Exactly as I was hoping they would be,” he asserts. “This is a long-established business with a strong foundation and it’s achieving great things. The tagline for the business is ‘Altogether Stronger’ and that’s an ethos that is very strongly embedded with everyone operating extremely well as part of a team.”

The corporate world from whence he came has, he says, a very different dynamic. “It’s one that involves chasing the figures for the next month or the next quarter, whereas here we have a longer-term attitude and different approach to what we deem to be acceptable risks for the business. That’s about investing for the future and growing the business in a very clear and sustainable way, which is one of our core values.”

Mr Wilkinson graduated in Quantity Surveying at Heriot-Watt University and worked in London for several years before returning to Edinburgh, where he had studied. “I really enjoyed my time there, but the call of home was strong, and I moved to Belfast where I was initially an associate director with quantity surveyors Sweett Group before moving to AECOM,” he says.

That was to establish AECOM’s project management, cost management and its building business in Northern Ireland. “I was ultimately the office lead for some 400 people.” He also led technical excellence across Europe and India.

When the opening at Henry Brothers presented itself, he was keen to seize it. “This sort of opportunity doesn’t come along very often. It’s a family-owned business, historically run by the owners and this was a chance to manage that for the next generation,” he says.

Henry Brothers was founded in 1976 when Jim Henry started a small construction business in Magherafelt, Co Londonderry. It was originally called H&K Construction and renamed Henry Brothers in 1986 as it expanded into larger projects and subsequently grew through acquisitions.

Most of its business now comes from public sector projects in education, defence and healthcare and in line with its partnership approach and ‘Altogether Stronger’ ethos, the firm participates in a range of strategic National and Regional Frameworks aiming to simplify the tender process for clients and deliver measurable social value as well as value for money.

Mr Wilkinson is based at Henry Brothers’ HQ in Magherafelt, though he spends two days every fortnight in Scotland. “I try to work a day in Edinburgh and a day in Glasgow and we have a full-time team in Cardross on the Firth of Clyde.”

He himself lives in Killinchy, a village near Strangford Lough, where he observes: “I’m geographically closer to Scotland there than I am to our Northern Ireland office.”

Among Mr Wilkinson’s current goals is rebuilding Henry Brothers’ Scottish business which he says was significantly bigger in previous years and that will involve opening new premises here.

“Cardross is a good location as we do a lot of work at the Royal Naval Base at Faslane but we’ve now acknowledged that we need to invest in Scotland,” he adds. “We’re doing that, and to attract good people, we also need to identify the right location.

The company has always had a strong base of work from the MOD and other defence-related contracts in Scotland have included a 24/7 operational control room with training and ancillary facilities for fire and rescue personnel at RAF Lossiemouth.

There is existing and potential work, he adds, in schools. “We are the main contractors at Frogston Primary School in south Edinburgh which is due to complete this summer,” he says. As part of this project the team partnered with school staff to relocate young trees from the construction site, which are now growing at other local schools, an initiative helping to support local biodiversity.

Already on several well-established national and regional Frameworks including Crown Commercial Service and Pagabo which have been successful throughout the UK, the company is working hard to secure work on Frameworks such as the Scottish Hub projects and local council Frameworks.

While the construction sector currently faces a raft of structural and economic challenges such as rising costs and skills and labour shortages Mr Wilkinson refuses to be disconsolate. “Yes, margins are tight, but the way to get around that is being smarter and by doing more with less. We’ve got to learn how to be more efficient and to learn how to standardise where we can.”

Regarding skills, he highlights higher-level apprenticeships such as those for quantity surveyors, project managers and engineers. “Those mean an apprentice is employed by a company and earns a salary while studying which I believe is working well, underpinned by a good infrastructure, and graduates come out with zero debt, five years’ work experience and pretty much a guaranteed job.”

As with all other industries, construction is sizing up the challenges and opportunities presented by AI. Construction in the UK remains one of the least digitally mature sectors compared with others such as manufacturing, finance or IT and a report by the RICS stated recently that organisations that understand and act on these changing patterns will gain significant competitive advantages.

Mr Wilkinson concurs. “Actually, the whole industry, whether contractors or consultancy could benefit from just getting things, such as data, automated first before even implementing AI. And if you want to automate and use AI, you first need to ensure your data is in a good, standardised system.
“People tend to have spreadsheets on various laptops and – however inefficient – it seems to have worked but now we must bring that disparate information into common data rooms and then you can build your automated systems.

“Some in the sector are slightly ahead, some slightly behind but none of us are currently leading the field in comparison to other industries.”

His appointment as MD at Henry Brothers is clearly satisfying on a personal level. “The ethos here is simply ‘doing the right thing’. You can have all the management training in the world but what’s important is leaving things in a better state than they were when you started – that applies to my job, my sector, business in general and every other facet of life.”