OUT OF OFFICE Travel down Coniscliffe Road, Darlington, and you’ll find the home of Populus Select, a leading Executive Search firm in the Science, Sustainable Technology, Engineering and Manufacturing sectors.
Heading up the business is founder and managing director Sim Hall, who, along with a passion for delivering tailored recruitment solutions, has been working on another creative project behind the scenes. Swapping Populus Select’s offices for the garage, Sim has been working on the restoration of a Land Rover Defender - a project also taken on by Forum chairman James Robson during the 2020 lockdown. James said, “The full rebuild of my Defender started on the 18th February 2020, just before the first lockdown hit us all. The rebuild took until the 5th June with over 400 hours being dedicated to it which would not have been possible had it not been for the pandemic. Under “normal” circumstances working weekends I would have expected it to take at least 12 months. “I started the rebuild of my 1996 Defender 300tdi 90 because the chassis had reached the end of its economic and safe life. Fortunately, as the vehicles have a good intrinsic value there are several manufactures of galvanised replacement chassis’. They aren’t cheap (£2,000) so you have to be sure it’s an undertaking you are going to see all the way through.” Inspired by James’ restoration of his Land Rover Defender, Sim took the plunge and invested in his own. Sim said, “I first learned to drive in a Land Rover on my Uncle’s farm near Ripon aged 10 and since leaving the Army, where I drove one daily for years, I have always hankered for one.
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ENTREPRENEURS’ FORUM NEWS
