Meet the Team - Ed B.
Ed Bretchman - Project Development Manager
I moved back to Herefordshire in 2005 when the opportunity to work at Border Oak came about.
Having worked for a number of years in and around London the thought of working for a prestigious family run company back in my home county of Herefordshire was very appealing and exciting.
Little did I know that my new role would mean I spent much of my time back in the south east of the country, driving from site to site!
During my first 7 years at Border Oak I was a Project Manager, a role that I loved and one that provided me with an in-depth understanding of the entire Border Oak process. I was able to watch how the buildings are constructed on all sorts of tricky (and sometimes very remote) sites and work with clients to deliver their perfect home.
However, my background in design and sales drew me towards my current role and so when Ewart Hutton (our senior development manager at the time) decided to relocate to France to write novels I jumped at the chance to take the role on.
Being a Project Development Manager is all encompassing. It involves a broad spectrum of skills - from taking the very first enquiry call through to undertaking site visits, bespoke design development, managing the planning process and arranging quotations. It also involves the sales negotiation stages and concludes with me handing the project over to our contracts team.
I think I have made over one thousand site visits over the last few years. My job has taken me to all sorts of different places and I have met an incredible array of people. From grand stately homes to a tin shed in the middle of a 60 acre wood, and from the northern reaches of Scotland and back down to Guernsey. There are no areas of the British Isles that I have not ventured to with Border Oak.
For me there are so many enjoyable aspects to my job - I really enjoy meeting new clients every week, travelling to all sorts of lovely parts of the country, providing clients with honest and transparent information about the process and our brilliant product, but especially being involved in building dream homes and getting to work with such a fantastic team of people at Border Oak.
One of my most memorable projects was Forrest View - a replacement bungalow project in a national park area with super strict planning restrictions. The amazing new house has been completed for a few years now, but I still visit the client from time to time. It is truly a fantastic family home and one that sits beautifully in its woodland setting and gets better with age.
There is an overriding feeling of pride that everyone at Border Oak has about the company and our houses. This feeling is inherent in how John Greene has managed the company for the last 40 years - it truly is a unique and unrivalled company and one that I hope to be working at for many years to come.
Read more about our Design and Planning team here
