Monthly Maidstone Spotlight – Drakemoor Ltd

Building and refurbishment company Drakemoor Ltd’s phenomenal growth saw them named as Kent’s second fastest growing company in the Megagrowth 50 2025 List this month. We chatted to Managing Director Spenser Mills to find out the secrets behind the company’s success.

Firstly, Spenser, can you tell us a bit about Drakemoor and how the company started?
We formed the company in 2018 after I left my last firm of 25 years. Gradually, my old colleagues left the company too and wanted to join me, as well as some clients I’d worked with in the past. So we re-established the team which was great.

We carried on working on some refurbishments in the city, before branching out into new builds and high-end residential properties. Now, we specialise in commercial, education, healthcare and residential sectors.

There are 12 of us now and we feel more like friends and family – in fact, I’ve worked with one of my directors here since 1986.

You were runner-up for the second time in the Megagrowth 50 list after recording a remarkable growth of 483.1% – how did you achieve this?We never actually set out to achieve the turnover that we did. We just always do our best and are really good at what we do. We don’t really look at numbers – I will never compromise quality and delivery over a profit margin. Our focus is always on doing a good job and the numbers follow.

Our ethos is we’ve got wages to pay and we all just want to have a nice life and be happy. We work hard but we’re happy as individuals and enjoy coming to work. We respect each other and are not jumping over each over for promotions. That’s all reflected in our end product which is fantastic.

Another key to our success is good contractors – we’re particularly fussy about who we work with as they are fundamental to our business and reputation. If they don’t share the same ethos as us, then they will not be on our list; we can’t afford to have a rotten egg in the basket.

Your offices are a stunning oast house in Sutton Valence- has Drakemoor always been based around Maidstone?
Yes – I used to live in West Farleigh and our first office was a farm building about half a mile from there. We then moved to serviced accommodation near the police station but quickly outgrew that. For our next move, we needed somewhere convenient for our staff who mostly lived in Medway and Maidstone, but it was also really important at that stage to invest in ourselves and get our own property. We saw it as a platform for our staff to show we’re serious about our business.

We refurbished the oast ourselves and it’s now a striking oak beamed office, decorated in vibrant colours. It’s a Christmas office – it looks great with a huge decorated tree! It’s a really happy place to come and work.

We like to support the local area too. We are quite generous and have always supported local charities such as sports clubs, hospices, an ex-servicemen charity and a disabled choir which my sister sings with. We like to donate often.

What’s been your biggest challenge?
Our biggest challenge is making the commitment to take on staff never knowing if you’ll have enough work beyond the current projects. We’re not big enough to have a year’s worth of work ahead of us; we usually have around six months’. You just hope that the workload continues. I found it stressful initially, but I made the decision to not lose sleep over it. We do the best we can and one day it may not be enough, but worrying won’t help – 95% of the things we worry about in life don’t happen. You just have to work hard and trust in your ability.

What advice would you give other growing businesses?
Firstly, if you’re in construction to make money you need to re-educate yourself because there are easier ways to make money!

Just be true to yourself. Always do the best you can, deliver the product you’re promising and do it with a smile. That way, you’ll go home happy knowing you’ve done your best. You’re going to win more than you lose, but don’t be greedy and you’ll find the profit and growth will come.

What are your plans for the future?
We just want to get stronger. I’m not interested in being the next £100million contractor in Maidstone. We’re of no threat to any other builder – we just want to carry on doing a good job for nice people, for a reasonable return.

We work across a wide area but would like to do more work in Kent, so it would be great for more local clients to give us a chance – we find that once a client tries us, we go on to get a second job with them.

Find out more about Drakemoor Ltd https://drakemoor.co.uk/
Follow them on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/drakemoor-ltd/