"If there’s to be
a Roaring ‘20s
again, I want
Sunderland and the
Cultural Quarter,
in particular, to
be perfectly
positioned for it.”
develop great businesses from scratch,
starting with a good idea and then scaling
up,” he said.
“It has been a big learning curve and
certainly never dull.
“At Leighton, we learned how to set up
offices across the world, how to break into
the global markets.
“People get frightened, they think they
can’t do it, but they can – and once you’ve
done it once, you can do it again.”
The company now works around the
globe, constantly looking for the next
opportunity to emerge.
But not even the Leighton Group has
been immune to the economic pressures
of the pandemic which has cut a swathe
through so much of the business world.
“Some parts of the group have done
better than others, we’ve had to let some
people go, we’ve taken others on, but this
is a challenge for businesses everywhere,
and an opportunity too. Workcast has
been particularly successful,” he adds.
“The concept of The Leighton Group is
to have the mother ship and you develop
ideas within it – some don’t work and
don’t get spun out – but the ones that do,
we set them up independently and they get
a life of their own."
Feted as one of the best North-East
businessmen of his generation, Paul insists
he’s not even the best businessman in his
family.
That honour goes to his 53-year-old
brother Gerard, who is now the driving
force behind Leighton: “Gerard is an
exceptionally good businessperson – the
best businessperson I’ve ever met and the
company is in safe hands with him.”
While faced with the immediate
challenges in the current situation, Paul is
focussed on a time when life and business
can begin returning to normal and the
people of Wearside can live and work
without fears of infection.
“When you look back at the Spanish
Flu of 1918, which was also a horrendous
pandemic, after the first and second waves,
people were incredibly cautious about
how they conducted themselves in their
daily lives over the next couple of years,”
he adds.
“But after that period, culturally, came
the Roaring ‘20s with prosperity and
partying.
“And if there’s to be a Roaring ‘20s
again, I want Sunderland and the Cultural
Quarter, in particular, to be perfectly
positioned for it.”
wear.business – the voice of business for the Wear region | 17