Meet Hamlan’s General Manager Andrew Carroll

Focused, hard-working and a true family man, Hamlan Homes General Manager Andrew Carroll has been a fearless leader of change within Hamlan, and he’s only just getting started. The Times News Group spoke to Andrew recently about how
he got into the construction industry and where he hopes to take the business into the future.

It has been five years since Andrew Carroll took over the reins at Hamlan as General Manager, and since then the business has experienced remarkable change.

Alongside the executive team, Andrew oversaw Hamlan’s rebrand, redesign, and a restructure of its
personnel and procedures.

In 2018, this massive overhaul culminated into Hamlan’s most successful year in sales to date, an accomplishment Andrew considers as his greatest professional achievement.

We asked Andrew how he got to this point? And where to next for Andrew and Hamlan?

Where it all began
For Andrew, a career in construction was something he almost fell into, born and bred in Geelong, Andrew comes from a farming family, his father was a wool classer and his brothers are farmers who specialise in merino wool.

Inspired by his own father’s hands-on line of work, Andrew chose a degree in Construction Management at Deakin University, Geelong Campus.

His real taste of the industry came when he started part-time work as a bricklayer’s labourer working on jobs along the Surf
Coast.

It was this experience that allowed Andrew to see first-hand what could be achieved within the industry with hardwork and an eye for quality and this employment continued until he finished his degree.

“I began working for bricklayers who were really passionate about what they did,” Andrew said.

“They were the best brickies I’ve ever met, quality was very important to them, it didn’t matter what sort of money they were making, they just wanted to do it right every time.”

As Andrew progressed through his study, he was given the opportunity in his fourth year of university to work part-time at Hamlan as an estimator.

It then led to a quick progression through the ranks at Hamlan as he went from estimator to project administrator, then from a supervisor to a project manager.

When the unit development he was working on in Hamlan finished, he left the business and continued working on residential developments in Melbourne.

Andrew was enticed back to his hometown to work for another volume builder where he stayed for 11 years, first as a supervisor and then as construction manager.

He returned to Hamlan to take up the building manager position overseeing production and construction, soon after he was promoted to general manager.

“I saw the benefits that Hamlan gave me, and I’ve been very, very lucky to be in certain roles when I was quite young in comparison to other people, however that came with a lot of hard work and hard work is rewarded when opportunities arise.”

Hamlan’s five-year plan
Alongside the executive team, Andrew spearheaded a massive overhaul of Hamlan.

“Our five-year plan was to bring Hamlan back to Geelong, to take back our piece of the pie in our own backyard,” he said.

“We now know that, without a doubt, we are one of the biggest builders in Geelong that’s now branched out to Ballarat and Colac.

“We’re a local builder, and that’s what we wanted to achieve, Hamlan is now well and truly in the 21st century when it comes to personnel and procedure.

“But my time’s not done here, I have lots that I want to do, over the past five years we have worked really, really hard
on our numbers and procedures, for the next five years our aim is to maintain those numbers but do it smarter and do it better.”