£40m boss also runs pub called... Shambles!
WHEN Persimmon’s new boss Dave Jenkinson spent nearly £800,000 on a pub near his hometown last year, observers were quick to point out how apt its name was: Shambles.
After all, the firm had already faced criticism over shoddy workmanship. And the word spread just as Mr Jenkinson was appointed Persimmon’s interim chief executive after former boss Jeff Fairburn was ousted over his ‘obscene’ bonus which was at one stage worth £131million.
The windfall, paid in shares, was cut to £75million before Mr Fairburn, 52, left after a backlash from investors. Mr Jenkinson, yesterday named its permanent chief executive, was handed shares worth £40million in the same scheme. The pub was said to be the first major personal purchase by any of the Persimmon bosses whose huge bonuses critics say have been subsidised by the taxpayer-funded Help to Buy mortgage scheme.
It gave a rare glimpse into the lavish world inhabited by Mr Jenkinson, 51, a gruff northerner who appears not to fit the usual image of the super-slick, PR-savvy FTSE 100 executive.
The pub, in the market town of Morpeth, Northumberland, was bought for £663,000 plus VAT of £119,340, without a lender, in March last year by Tonia Holdings Limited.
Mr Jenkinson is the sole director of Tonia Holdings, a real estate company, according to Companies House. Tonia is the middle name of one of his daughters.
Signs in the pub’s windows say it is to be renamed The Townhouse and will re-open soon following refurbishbours ments. Mr Jenkinson, the Northumberland-born son of an engineer, knows the area well.
Since the early 1990s, he has owned a property in the village of Tranwell, an exclusive enclave near Morpeth which is regarded as something of a ‘millionaires’ row’. Wealthy neighmoney have included the former Olympic athlete Steve Cram, and several have bought plots of land to build Grand Designs-style homes.
Mr Jenkinson lives there with his long-term partner and their three children, two daughters and a son aged between 14 and 23.
Little is known about his interests outside of work apart from a passion for rugby union, but he is clearly proud of his north-eastern heritage – one of his children is called Tyne.
Having first joined Persimmon in 1997, Mr Jenkinson rose through the ranks to become managing director in 2016, and now chief executive.
When grilled by MPs about why UK housebuilding targets have not been met, he has argued protections on the Green Belt should be rolled back.
‘Doesn’t fit usual big-wig image’