IN Brief:
- Caddick Civil Engineering has appointed Lee Brown as Construction Director for the North East.
- The new Durham-based role will support regional workload growth, project delivery, client development, and supply chain management.
- The appointment follows Caddick’s wider push to expand its civil engineering footprint beyond its established Yorkshire base.
Caddick Civil Engineering has appointed Lee Brown as Construction Director, creating a new role to support the company’s expansion in the North East.
Brown joins from N&T Civils and brings more than three decades of construction and civil engineering experience. He began his career as a joiner before moving into management roles in his early twenties, later spending 20 years at Tilbury Douglas with a focus on construction. His career has also included senior work with Arrowbuild & Civil Engineering, Applebridge, and Tolent.
Based at Caddick’s Durham office, Brown will help grow the civil engineering business across the North East. His remit includes identifying new opportunities, expanding the client base, overseeing delivery and completion of projects, coordinating internal staff and external labour across active sites, and managing the local supply chain.
The appointment strengthens the regional leadership team under Paul Ellenor, Managing Director of Caddick Civil Engineering, who joined the business earlier this year with a brief to expand third-party contracts and increase Caddick’s footprint in key regions. Ellenor also brings experience across Yorkshire and the North East, including education, healthcare, remediation, infrastructure, and civil engineering work.
Caddick Civil Engineering operates across site clearance, remediation, bulk earthworks, roads, sewers, foundations, domestic drainage, floor slabs, membranes, substructure masonry, and external finishes. The company has a 40-year track record and works both with Caddick Construction and external clients, giving it a platform to support group projects while competing for standalone civils packages.
Paul Ellenor, Managing Director of Caddick Civil Engineering, said: “Lee’s appointment to the team is a significant step forward for our expansion plans in the North East. His extensive experience, in the region and across all aspects of construction and civil engineering, makes him an invaluable addition as we continue to grow our presence and service offering. His leadership will be crucial in ensuring the successful delivery of our current and future projects, and in expanding our relationships with new and existing clients.”
Brown said: “It’s fantastic to be joining Caddick Civil Engineering at a pivotal time for the business. Having previously worked with Paul and knowing his strong work ethic, passion and desire for success, I knew this would be a great opportunity to re-join forces with a trusted colleague. I’m looking forward to working together and using my experience to assist the team in building the business’ profile, attracting a diverse range of external clients and delivering high-quality projects.”
Caddick’s wider northern workload has continued to build across development and construction. Its £46m room2 hotel contract in Leeds shows the group’s continued activity in major regional projects, while the civil engineering arm is targeting growth in groundwork, infrastructure, external works, remediation, and enabling capability.
Regional expansion in civil engineering depends heavily on local relationships and supply chain depth. Civils work is shaped by ground conditions, highways authorities, utility interfaces, labour availability, subcontractor capacity, and planning constraints. A senior appointment with long regional experience can therefore support both work-winning and delivery, particularly where clients want confidence that a contractor can mobilise teams quickly and manage interfaces without bringing every resource in from outside the region.
The North East market offers a mix of public infrastructure, logistics, housing, education, healthcare, regeneration, and industrial development opportunities. Many of those schemes require early-stage civils input before main construction can begin. Contractors able to provide reliable earthworks, drainage, roads, utilities, remediation, and external works packages are likely to remain important to developers and main contractors trying to control programme risk.
Creating a dedicated Construction Director role suggests that Caddick is moving from opportunistic regional work towards a more embedded operating model. A Durham base gives the business a local platform, while Brown’s remit links commercial growth with delivery oversight. That combination will be important if the company is to expand without stretching management control across multiple active sites.
The next measure of progress will be the type of work Caddick Civil Engineering secures under the strengthened North East team. Senior regional investment will now need to translate into repeat clients, reliable supply chain partnerships, and a stronger share of civils work across the region.
