Shepherd Group is proud to once again be sponsoring the Family Business of the Year category in the 2023 York Press Business Awards.

As one of the largest wholly family-owned private companies in the UK, Shepherd Group recognises family businesses as the backbone of the UK economy and the bedrock of the communities where they operate. 

Founded more than 130 years ago, Shepherd Group’s essential character as a family business remains strong. This can be seen in the Group’s key values of Visionary Stewardship, Integrity and Respect, and Pride in Quality which are evident throughout its business operations.

Today, Portakabin is Shepherd Group’s flagship business and is celebrating over 60 years of operations.

As a market-leading pioneer of modular construction across the UK and continental Europe, Portakabin employs more than 2,000 people in seven European countries, delivering interim and permanent bespoke buildings, of any size to create offices, hospitals, schools, laboratories, universities and factories.

At the heart of this lies a fundamental and unchanging belief in being a responsible business and in doing business the right way. This means growing the Portakabin business in a way that contributes positively to society, acting ethically, with integrity and in a transparent way while minimising our impact on the climate and the world’s natural resources.

Creating precision-engineered buildings, we believe that our people are the key to exploring greater possibilities across our industry, thinking beyond products to solutions, and beyond customers to the people and societies they serve.

We recognise that everyone is different – that diversity helps us to understand different perspectives and opens our eyes to new ideas and innovation. Our ambition is to build a supportive and safe environment and an open culture for our people, to help them balance their lives between work and home, offer opportunities to grow in a way that suits their personal circumstances and encourage everyone to contribute to the Portakabin purpose.

Dan Ibbetson, Chief Executive Officer, Portakabin Ltd.