As part of our 15th anniversary celebrations, we caught up with Kori founder and director, Steve Culbert, to find out what inspired him to start the business and what his hopes for the future are:
“As a proud Corby native, I felt passionate about creating a local company that prioritised build quality and delivering exceptional service to clients. I wanted to move away from the industry’s tendency to prioritise speed and cost-cutting over craftmanship and customer satisfaction.
Back in January 2009, following many years in the construction industry, I had gained valuable insights into the needs of customers and the challenges within the industry. I leveraged this knowledge to create a construction business that addressed these gaps – S.A.C. Construction – a business that embodied my values and vision.
Starting with just four other members of the team, who are all still with the business today, we successfully delivered our first project – the refurbishment of School House at Uppingham School.
The rest, as they say, is history. Living by our values and vision, we have gone from strength to strength, initially delivering complex, fast track refurbishment and new build projects in the education sector, then growing beyond our traditional Northamptonshire heartland to deliver design and build projects nationally, across a range of sectors including later living, where we have proudly earned our reputation as market leaders over recent years.
We experienced significant growth, with our turnover increasing from £2 million in 2016 to £35 million in 2022 and felt we needed to support this growth by creating a fresh and modern brand identity that reflected our ambitions and values, and one that signified our focus on building communities and leaving a lasting legacy – just like the original Kori who founded our hometown of Corby! In the summer of 2022 S.A.C. Construction became Kori Construction – marking the start of a new phase of growth and celebrating our local heritage.
Today, with a headcount of 45, a turnover of circa £65 million, and a ‘World-Class’ Customer Net Promoter Score of 90, I’m immensely proud that Kori Construction has, and continues to build on our successes and flourish.
And the future? Driven by ambition, my intention is that Kori will continue to deliver exceptional for our people, our customers and the local communities where we live and work and become one of the UKs leading contractors.”
