Sandy Adam

Sandy Adam (55) is chairman and main shareholder of Springfield Properties PLC. He is the property entrepreneur behind the highly successful family owned Springfield Group of companies which specialise in the property sector.

Sandy is respected for his down to earth approach which puts the customer first. A strong leader, his philosophy is one of customer focus and family values. He broadly asks what clients want as individuals, organisations or communities; then he searches for a commercially viable solution.

In his eyes the company’s reputation is his reputation,

“We want people to say good things about us, we have built our reputation house by house by doing what we say we’ll do – giving people the home they want for the way they live and giving them value for money”

He has proven that the family business model is strong one and believes that family values help maintain customer focus and nurture long term business relationships,

“We are a family business under private ownership and that gives us a competitive advantage. We can focus on making long term decisions that secure the long term growth and prosperity of the group without the distractions of the short term interests of stock market shareholders making our customers our priority”

A strong strategic thinker, Sandy has spent thirty years studying the property cycle and putting strategies in place which allow land to be bought during the dips in the cycle when it offers best value.

“Land is potentially the most expensive element of providing homes; if we buy our land right we can afford to offer the customer more in the build of their home and that makes us very competitive.”

Family values mean a strong ethos of doing what is right and a focus on creating value for the Group, its customers and their communities. These family values also mean financial prudence and a lean flat structure in which empowered employees take responsibility; as a result the company is agile in all decision making and quick to respond to opportunities a trait which Sandy promotes throughout the organisation.

From a farming background, Sandy Adam operated as a property developer and investor until 1998 when he began house building under the Springfield banner. Through the last decade the company has built over 2000 homes in Scotland, demonstrating sustained growth and reporting a profit each year. Notably the company has grown and remained profitable through the downturn, a testament to the effectiveness of Springfield’s long term business strategies and the skill of its employees.