Laying the foundations for long-term value: talking to Glencar Construction CFO, Tom Tutty

In just over five years, Tom Tutty, CFO of Glencar Construction, has been part of a remarkable company transformation, seeing the company grow 20-fold from £20 million to over £400 million in annual revenue. But with rapid growth comes a shift in focus.

In this interview, Tom shares how his role as CFO has changed from financial reporting and cost control, to driving long-term growth – balancing profitability with investment, embracing technology and holding the company accountable to their strategic goals.
 

The dynamic shift from CFO to CVO Download the report

Hi Tom, tell me, how has Glencar's approach to financial management evolved since you joined the company?

When I first joined, my role was very hands-on, with limited strategic impact. The priority was getting the financial foundations in place, ensuring accurate reporting on profit and loss, cash flow, and balance sheets to keep the business running smoothly. As Glencar grew, I built a team to handle transactional work, freeing me up for more strategic objectives.

Today, most of my time is spent working with the executive board to align our values with our operations – providing data and analysis to support their work. That could mean reviewing spending on waste-tracking skip companies or producing reports to help us make the most of investment opportunities. My job is no longer about just financial priorities – it’s about finding ways to use our financial strength to drive sustainable growth and create long-term value for both our people and our clients.

What are Glencar’s core values?

We have five key values. Excellence, which focuses on the quality of our work and how we deliver on-site and for our clients. Innovation, covers everything from new technologies and construction methods, to advancements in design and digital solutions. Integrity defines how we work, how we treat each other, and how we engage with clients and stakeholders. The Future encompasses our ESG initiatives, workforce development, upskilling programs, and responsible procurement. And Customers focuses on how we build long term relationships by delivering on our promises, through strategic partnerships.

Another key part of The Future is supporting the communities around our sites. We’re not overly process-driven, so we don’t operate on rigid, long-standing supplier agreements. If a local skip company next door can benefit from the work we bring to an area, we’ll work with them rather than defaulting to a global provider.

How important is the finance function in driving these values?

Financial strength is essential. It’s easy to say that if we get our core values right, financial success will follow.
 

Strong values mean happier clients, leading to repeat business and engaged employees. By keeping employees engaged, we create more consistent teams that deliver better performance on-site. A strong supply chain and local community support also contribute to long-term success. But it’s all about balance. If one value slips – say, innovation comes at the expense of quality – clients won’t be happy, defects increase, and financial stability suffers. The key is maintaining financial discipline while ensuring our values drive every decision.

As CFO, what would you say is your biggest challenge right now?

ESG reporting is by far our biggest current operational challenge. We have some great ESG initiatives in place. Our electric car salary sacrifice scheme, for example, and our commitment to reusing or donating assets like fridges and kettles from worksites. But all of this involves additional time from finance to maintain. We now track carbon emissions in financial statements, right down to each employee’s commute. Every litre of fuel burned on-site, every office we own, it all needs to be logged. The sheer amount of data we need to collect and verify is significant and growing. It’s definitely placed a huge strain on finance.

Tell me more about your sustainability objectives?

Our own sustainability journey really took off when our Head of ESG joined us four years ago, but ESG has been a priority for our clients for much longer.
 

There’s a big difference between simply responding to ESG requirements in tenders and proactively leading those conversations. That’s where we’re trying to be. It’s about moving from a reactive to a proactive approach – investing in sustainability, pushing these ideas up the chain, and encouraging developers to adopt better practices that make a real difference.

Within Glencar, our dedicated ESG department focuses on driving ESG initiatives both externally and internally. We’ve set ourselves targets for net zero for Scope 1 and 2 by 2025, and Scope 3 by 2045, to shape how we evolve as a business.

Are you currently using technology to support the additional burden?

We’re always looking at how we can integrate new innovations, not just for ESG but across the board. One key example is our partnership with Inndex. Their app-based platform has helped us move from a manual sign in system to an integrated hub workers can use to sign in digitally, entering details like where they’ve travelled and their mode of transport. We’ve also worked closely with them to expand the app’s functionality to include full health and safety reporting, toolbox talks and training tracking all in one central hub. This has enabled us to improve internal operations, provide real-time site insights for clients, and support ESG reporting, all while streamlining processes to enhance efficiency and sustainability.

We’re also investing heavily in digital construction technologies like BIM and 3D modelling. While that’s not my area of expertise, we have a Head of Digital whose sole focus is staying ahead of these developments, ensuring we remain at the forefront and don’t fall behind competitors.

Is it difficult introducing innovation to a traditionally conservative industry like construction?

Construction is a funny industry. It has massive potential for technological growth, but in many ways, it remains quite traditional. A lot of things are still done simply because that’s how they’ve always been done. That’s why one of Glencar’s core values is innovation, making sure we’re at the forefront of new technologies. It makes a huge difference, especially for clients. If we can walk them through a digital model of their building before a single brick is laid, it helps them visualise the final product. Clash detection, for example, allows us to identify potential issues early, long before they become costly problems on-site.

Our approach is underpinned by a commitment to tier-one standards, even if we’re not there in size just yet. We don’t cut corners, we focus on delivering top-quality work, investing in top-tier people, and driving the industry forward with the right technology. For us, it’s not just about quoting the lowest price and delivering as cheaply as possible, it’s about adding value, setting new standards and helping push the industry in the right direction.

How do you balance short-term goals with your longer-term strategy and value proposition?

It’s become trickier as we’ve grown, especially given the state of the market over the last few years. In the past, external stakeholders – banks and others with financial ties – focused more on our overall trajectory, overlooking short-term fluctuations as long as we were moving in the right direction. But with some high-profile failures in construction, there’s been a shift toward immediate performance. Now, stakeholders want to know how we’re delivering today, not just where we’ll be in five years.

This means we need to assess every project through a short and long-term lens. Is the customer right? Is the location suitable, minimising unnecessary travel and strain on employees? Is the scheme something we’re genuinely proud to deliver? With the market less congested, we’re becoming more selective, prioritising projects that strengthen both financial performance and our core values.

How is your finance team adapting to technological advancements, and has this affected what you look for when recruiting?

It’s been a journey. Some team members are eager to embrace new tech, while others prefer sticking to familiar processes, and that’s important too. While innovation is essential, the core reporting still needs to happen as it does now. Construction as an industry lags behind in tech adoption, but we’re pushing forward, introducing new software to support our data analysis and supply chain, and upskilling our teams as we grow.
 

When it comes to recruitment, undoubtedly yes, we’re shifting toward more technical skills. But for me I think the key is still about finding the right balance of people with both traditional accounting skills and the aptitude to embrace new technical expertise.

 

How does your people strategy link back to your core values?

Our new bonus scheme is a great way to illustrate this. We’ve designed it specially to reward employees for representing the Glencar values. Customer feedback plays a big part in this. At the end of each project, we ask clients how likely they are to recommend Glencar, and this score directly impacts bonuses, reinforcing our commitment to excellence and customers.

ESG is another key factor. We’ve set a carbon emissions intensity target that lowers each year to drive sustainability, and we also track charitable contributions. Individual performance also plays a role, assessing how employees are developing and upskilling. It’s a balance of incentive and accountability.

Ultimately, we wanted the focus to be about driving the values we stand for rather than financial objectives. Even in a year where we fall short of our profit target, employees can still earn a bonus based on these contributions.

That sounds great. Has the workforce embraced it?

Yes, they have. We rolled it out a couple of months ago and have already seen an uptick in PDR completion and training. HR has had lots of people getting in touch asking if they’ve completed all their training, which is something we’ve never seen before. Usually, people avoid training because it’s at the bottom of their priority list when they’re busy on site. So hopefully this will have a real impact.

And finally, to summarise, would you say that the role of the CFO has evolved beyond traditional expectations?

Absolutely. It’s not just reporting numbers anymore, it’s about influencing broader business strategy. To me this feels like quite a natural evolution. Sooner or later, everything in the business flows through finance. We might not be the first to hear about an initiative, but every decision ultimately ties back to financial reporting.

That said, I think it also speaks to a broader point about collaboration. As a business, all our departments need to work together because while finance can provide data and analysis, actually implementing change is a different challenge. To create real change, everyone needs to work together.
 

Learn more about the emerging role of the Chief Value Officer

Download the report Chief Value Officer - The Important Evolution of the CFO

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