Beech Holdings edged out Housing Units and Crawford Healthcare to win the MEN Business of the Year 2016 award in the £10-25m category.

It has been a great year for Beech Holdings. Not only has the Manchester-based property developer received one-to-one mentoring sessions from Dragon Den’s Deborah Meaden. But they can now count being a MEN Business of the Year winner among their achievements for 2016.

Beech Holdings bring unloved historic buildings in Manchester back to life, giving them a useful purpose.

They create one and two-bedroom starter homes for the increasing number of young entry-level professionals wanting to live in the city centre.

The company owns £40m of residential housing stock in Greater Manchester and currently has a gross development pipeline of £100m.

It is the brainchild of landlord and property developer Stephen Beech who started his property career with a portfolio of energy-efficient student properties.

In 2014, Stephen turned his attention to Manchester city centre, transforming unused office buildings into efficiently designed, environmentally sustainable and affordable apartments. Beech buildings are designed with a focus on maximising every usable floor space and long term durability.

With a turnover of £10.3m, the business employs more than 60 people and has more than quadrupled in size since 2014.

It also claims to be on track to hit the £39m turnover in the next 12 months.

Stephen said: “Beech holdings’ product is to guarantee the long term future of unloved, unused buildings in Manchester city centre.

“HS2 is on its way, Manchester is booming and homes need to be built quickly. When it comes to restoring old buildings, Beech Holdings is the biggest developer within the inner ring road right now.”

On winning he said: “It is amazing and we feel so honoured.

“I am a proud Mancunian and the Evening News has been on our coffee table for 38 years so it is great to achieve this here.

“I am very proud of the city’s history and heritage and we are creating carbon-neutral apartments to continue this legacy.”

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