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Barratt sees continued growth ahead

2015/01/f0ae1__1384842761_terrys

House-builder Barratt Developments is on course for another year of growth after announcing a 17% rise in forward sales in the first half.

Major new Barratt developments set to start in the coming months include at the old Terry’s chocolate factory in York.

Barratt’s financial year runs to the end of June. In the six months to 31st December 2014 it completed 12.5% more units than in the corresponding period of 2013 and achieved an 8.4% increase in selling price.

The company is also on course to achieve a gross margin of at least 20% and retrun on capital employed of 25% by 2017.

The rise in profit margins reflects the higher proportion of completions from newer higher margin land, growth in volumes, operational improvements, and the benefit from underlying house price inflation net of cost inflation, the company said.

As at 31 December 2014 Barratt was operating from 399 (2013: 380) active sites.

Barratt started work on 96 new developments between July and December 2014, compared to 81 in the corresponding period of the previous year.  It expects to open a further 90 by June 2015, including:

  • Hollygate Park, the former Cotgrave colliery in Nottinghamshire;
  • Baggeridge Village in Staffordshire, built on the former Baggeridge brickworks;
  • Brooklands in Milton Keynes;
  • and The Chocolate Works in York, the re-development of the former Terry's chocolate factory by Barratt's David Wilson division. 

Group chief executive Mark Clare said: "We have delivered a strong performance in our first half including a 12.5% step up in completion levels.  We are on track for another significant improvement in our financial performance for the full year as we continue to operate in a disciplined way, building the highest quality homes in places people want to live.

"Our significant investment programme in new land continues to pay off and over the next six months we plan to open around 90 new sites which will give us the highest average number of developments for six years.  Over their lifetime, these new sites will deliver another 13,500 much needed new homes."

 

 

The Construction Index UK News

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