Ones to Watch: Matthew Ayres
As part of Family Business Week 2023 we are profiling a series of future family business leaders who are ‘Ones to Watch’.
Matthew Ayres
Group Managing Director, Bennie Group
It was never assumed when he was growing up that Matthew Ayres would join the business his mother ran, but now after five years with the Bennie Group – including three as Managing Director – he is clearly proving his worth. And as his mother, who has remained in the business as Chair, attests, Matthew “has only just got started”.
With a place in the family business needing to be earned, Matthew brought to Bennie eight years of experience in a range of roles, on top of a degree in management from York University.
Much of that experience was with the John Lewis Partnership, where he worked as part of the team that established the central shared service operations for Waitrose and John Lewis as the group started bringing the two businesses together – essentially an IT project that actually was an effort in change management.
He also spent time with Westfield after the software company he was working for was acquired by the well-known developer, finding himself in something akin to a “Silicon Valley sitcom”. He left soon afterwards.
Although he flirted with a career in architecture early in life, being in the family business allows him to get involved in what inspires him, in particular: solving problems. “Business is all about solving problems and doing it in a cost-effective manner,” Matthew says. “I just love that… because that’s fun! I’m a problem solver.”
Being in a family business, in particular, allows him to work in a structure that is “more agile and informal”. But most importantly, as the cliché goes, “people do business with people, and you hear that over and over again. But for me, that’s our USP. Our success is built on the relationships that our people build with customers and suppliers.”
Notwithstanding his strong background before coming to Bennie, the last five years have been a steep learning curve: “Every single day I need to learn something new, become better at what I do”. From the start, he had a lot of responsibility, and being the boss’s son added extra pressure. So looking back, he realises that when he first joined the family business, he tried too hard to be someone he wasn’t. Having learned from those mistakes, he is moving forward with confidence in being himself.
Of particular relevance is the admittedly old-fashioned (some would use less kind words) culture of the sector in which Bennie operates: construction. But Matthew is tackling that head on, committed to calling out behaviour that does not respect diversity and inclusion – “educating, not punishing” them, Matthew emphasises.
“No one is born to hate; they are taught hate by others in society,” Matthew says. “So it’s our responsibility as an employer to provide that education”.
More than just the obligatory Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) training that every employee needs to go through in the induction process, it’s about “starting a conversation” and “creating a safe environment” where people can share and learn. By doing so, Matthew is helping to create a company culture that is respectful and allows colleagues to “come to work as a human being”.
And it’s not just within his own company. Matthew has already started to push the conversation further – talking about D&I in the global family business community.
Indeed, a thoroughly modern mentality runs throughout everything Matthew does. He is currently working with his team to implement a strategy focusing on the soil and equipment businesses – managing risk by ensuring a diverse product range in each of those areas, delivered across multiple regions in the UK.
Bringing in new ideas that disrupt 80 years of tradition is not easy, and he recognises that the change has been emotionally hard on some. But he is committed to the strategy which will deliver for the long-term, something that family businesses are known for.
Read more from about our ‘Ones to Watch’ here.