The Eric Wright Charitable Trust

The Eric Wright Charitable Trust

The trust sits atop the Eric Wright Group, a construction-to-property enterprise that Eric Wright founded in Preston nearly a century ago. Rather than liquidating the founder's stake at succession, the group's ownership was restructured so that operating-company profits flow into a charitable entity. That structure makes the trust a direct beneficiary of the group's property portfolio, which spans office, industrial, and mixed-use holdings across Lancashire and Greater Manchester. Asset allocation is rooted in the group's own balance sheet. Property holdings include Sceptre House, a commercial building in Bamber Bridge, the Wardley Industrial Estate in Worsley, and Animate Preston, a city-centre leisure scheme that opened in early 2025. Further assets stretch to Hattersley Trade Park in Tameside and Pioneer Place in Burnley. The trust also holds a managed investment portfolio of unspecified composition, pointing to a dual strategy of direct real estate and investable securities. The trust operates through a tight-knit governance circle. Jeremy Hartley runs the Eric Wright Group as CEO; Gill Chadwick serves as CFO and also leads Wrightcare, the group's care-home division. Alison Wright sits on the trust board, maintaining family oversight of the charitable mandate. The group's membership in the Preston Partnership signals formal alignment with local economic development, not just passive grant-making. What distinguishes the trust is its ownership-concentration model: no external fundraising, no limited partners, and no pressure to mark assets to a quarterly investor timetable. The trust's deployment capacity rises or falls with the Eric Wright Group's own property income, making it a counter-cyclical vehicle embedded in one regional economy rather than a diversified grant-maker shopping for best-in-class managers globally.