A widely respected Southwold-born businesswoman is celebrating a decade of career success that has seen her rise rapidly from trainee to director with a national housebuilder.

Lucy Woodhall joined Persimmon Anglia in 2011, aged just 19, as a trainee based at the company’s former regional head office in Lowestoft, quickly progressing from administrator to sales trainee, qualified sales advisor and then field sales manager.

When the Suffolk regional business was launched at Great Blakenham in 2018, Lucy took on the head of sales role and within two years she had been promoted to sales director. Her decade of service was celebrated with colleagues at the Forge Kitchen in Ipswich.

Ian Hamilton, managing director of Persimmon Suffolk, said: “Lucy is a shining example of the tremendous career opportunities available in the construction industry. She came to the company as an office administrator and – through her ambition, hard work and determination – has quite rightly risen through the ranks to become a director in less than ten years.

“Lucy is a brilliant young businesswoman and an inspiration to her sales team. They know they can trust her judgement as she has travelled the same training path and faced all the same professional challenges as they will encounter in their careers.

“She is also widely respected throughout the company and by suppliers and contractors, for her thorough knowledge of the industry and the local business environment. She is clear proof that young people can build fantastic, successful and long-term careers in this industry.”

Within two years of joining Persimmon, Lucy had scooped an ‘Outstanding Achievement’ award from Lowestoft College, where she studied Business Administration and Customer Service, and progressed through Persimmon’s in-house sales advisor training programme to the point that she was able to take on the solo responsibility of one of the company’s new homes developments.

Lucy said: “I feel so lucky to have joined Persimmon and found exactly the right career for me. I loved my time out on site, helping customers to secure the home of their dreams, and that experience gave me so much insight into how all the different departments of a housebuilder work together to plan and build new homes.

“Nowadays I manage a team of sales advisors and managers, looking after our valued customers at multiple sites across Suffolk, as well as working closely with the other directors to plan ahead for the business.

“The absolute high point so far was having the privilege to name our Trelawny Place site in Felixstowe after my grandfather, who was the former docks manager, and being able to invite my mum to join me to launch of the development.

“The construction industry offers such a variety of career opportunities for people of all ages, and the ongoing training and development we receive through the Persimmon Pathway helps each employee achieve their absolute potential.

“The first ten years of my career has flown by, and I’m looking forward to seeing what I shall accomplish in the next decade.”