Castle Green Homes appoints data analyst to support growth

December 3, 2024

Castle Green Homes has welcomed David McCaffrey, based at its Preston Brook office.

The business has gone from strength to strength following a management buyout of the then Macbryde homes in 2020 with backing from long-term finance partner Bridgemere UK.

The number of homes completed a year has increased by 155% from 114 in the year ended March 2020 to 291 in the year to March 2024. In the same period turnover has increased by 333%.

Since the rebrand, the business has delivered a total of 1,000 homes. Castle Green is eyeing further growth with an ambitious target of delivering more than 700 homes across 15 sites in the current financial year.

David, 27, from Liverpool, said: “My first project with Castle Green was working with the finance director and CEO Gwyn Jones on the new business plan and the five-year forecast. It was really beneficial as it gave me an overview of where the company is at and what it’s aiming for.”

David began his career as a business analyst for investment banking firm JP Morgan in London. He’s also worked for QVC in customer experience analytics and business intelligence within social housing.

His qualifications include a diploma in Investments and Securities from The Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment (The CISI) and he is pursuing a BASc in Digital and Technology Solutions at the University of Roehampton.

He described the creation of his new role as proactive move by the homebuilder, with the opportunity to create a system that would be beneficial for all aspects of the business.

“Because the company is growing quickly a lot of the data is segmented. Some of it is updated daily and some quarterly. It’s important to have one data source and the true position at that time,” David added.

“We need to get to a position where we can go from a high level and look at the spend for a site down to a particular plot and see all of that information in one place whether it’s a Partnerships site or open market development.”

He said the biggest issue has been “identifying where all the data is, accessing it and understanding how the different aspects affect each other and how it all impacts on the business”.

“Everyone is willing to help as much as they can,” he added.

Castle Green is headquartered in St Asaph, has an office at Preston Brook and live development sites across North Wales and the Northwest of England.

It’s currently operating across North Wales, Cheshire and the Liverpool City Region, but is looking to expand the geographic spread of the sites it develops to including Greater Manchester, North Staffordshire and North Shropshire.

The business now directly employs 114 people – that’s an increase of 37% since 2021.

“I’d like to see my role develop to become head of analytics with a team of data analysts and data engineers,” said David, who has a three-year-old daughter and one year-old-son.

David’s line manager at Castle Green is systems manager Dave Nicholls. He said: “David demonstrated the ideal level of ability in the areas that we were looking to improve, with experience from a number of industry sectors, proving his adaptability. Coupled with his professional ‘can-do’ attitude, he was a perfect fit for the role and the wider team. His skillset complements that of the existing team, meaning we now have a diverse range of abilities in-house to handle the various IT and data needs of the business.”

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