TOURISM
Big picture – Dale Smith , founder of The SDDE Smith Group , wants to create jobs and boost the region ’ s tourist proposition .
PROSPERITY VISION
Meet the Tees property group reinventing the North-East
Environmental , social and governance , or ESG , is increasingly important for businesses and their stakeholders .
And while for some , it is an afterthought or an add-on , for others , it forms an integral part of their entire ethos .
One local business falls firmly into the latter category , with a purpose that has developed organically as the group has
Ambitious – Dale Smith has realigned The SDDE Smith Group ’ s purpose . grown , and has now come to influence its entire focus .
Dale Smith formed The SDDE Smith Group , a portfolio of property-based companies , following on from the success of his first venture , holiday lettings agency Host & Stay .
Alongside Host & Stay , the group now comprises a number of complementary companies , including legal practice Grey-Smith Legal , interior design agency Styled and construction firm WOODSmith Construction Group .
Dale said : “ We set up Host & Stay in December 2018 , when it had nine properties on the books .
“ Now , it has 600 holiday homes under management , and it ’ s this success that has made us rethink our purpose .
“ As we continue to grow and develop the group , we have realised that our purpose is no longer just to provide the best possible service to our clients and to create a profitable business that can provide jobs . It now runs much , much deeper than that and we have come to recognise we have a much larger purpose to fulfil .”
The larger purpose , which forms the basis of the group ’ s ESG strategy , is to help redefine the
hostandstay . co . uk
North-East through the creation of jobs and the bolstering of the region ’ s tourist proposition .
Dale added : “ Profit and revenue isn ’ t the only way to define a business , and so , when we ’ ve been developing our ESG strategy , we ’ ve tried to take our thinking much , much wider and redefine our real purpose – which is now to create better places to live , to work and to stay .
“ Even before we started pulling this strategy together , we ’ d already been thinking about our wider purpose as a group .
“ This was when we realised that we , as a business , can and do have a huge impact on our colleagues and their families , not to mention the communities in which we operate and the economies of those communities .
“ We want to be in a position to become an employer of choice in the region ; we know our colleagues are our biggest asset and we ’ re working really hard to better understand them and what they are looking for when it comes to their careers .
“ When we look at this together with the work Host & Stay is doing to improve the tourism industry in the region , which also boosts local communities economically , then I ’ m confident our vision is well on its way to becoming a reality .”
82 | Tees Business