Chris Bramhall

The background

I trained as a civil engineer and have spent my working life in delivery rather than advice — on site, then running packages, then running business units, most recently as a construction director.

That means I have done the parts of your week that are hard to explain to somebody who has not done them. Pricing work that has to be right first time. Managing subcontractors who are better at their trade than at their paperwork. Explaining to a client why the programme moved. Keeping people safe.

Why I am buying

I would rather spend the next stage of my career running a business properly than advising other people about theirs. I have funding behind me, and whatever I buy I intend to run and keep — I am an operator, not an investor looking for an exit.

The businesses I am interested in are the ones where the owner is ready to step back and there is nobody obvious to take over. Those companies are often wound up for want of a buyer, and a working business with trained staff and real customers is worth more than the sum of its machinery.

What that means in practice

You get me on the phone, not an associate. I will come to your site rather than asking you to come to mine. And I will tell you plainly if I am not the right buyer — including if what you actually need is a management buyout or an employee ownership trust, which are often better answers than selling to a stranger.

The other thing I do

I also run Deploy AI: Decide-Control-Deploy Ltd (company number 17118717), an operational improvement practice for businesses in construction, engineering and manufacturing. It is a separate activity and it is described at deploy-ai.co.uk.

I mention it here because I would rather you knew before we met than found out afterwards. If you ever engage that company and I come to think an acquisition might interest you, I will say so directly and you can end the engagement with no further fee.