Redrow plc

Redrow plc
Public (LSE: RDW)
Industry Housebuilding
Founded 1974
Headquarters Flintshire, Wales
Key people
 Steve Morgan
(Executive chairman)
John Tutte
(Chief Executive)
Revenue £1,150 million (2015)[1]
£213 million (2015)[1]
£162 million (2015)[1]
Number of employees
 1,650 (2015)[2]
Website www.redrow.co.uk

Redrow plc is a British housebuilder and general construction company based in Flintshire. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is currently a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

History

Steve Morgan had been working as a site agent for Wellington Civil Engineering when, in 1974, the parent company decided it was to be closed. Morgan offered to take over the contract, borrowed £5,000 from his father, and completed the contract at a profit. Further work was carried out for Wellington and, still aged only 21, Morgan registered his new company – Redrow.[3]

Redrow gradually expanded through small civil engineering work and, with Simon Macbryde, formed a separate building company; these were later merged to leave Macbryde with 17 percent of the enlarged company. Geographically, Redrow moved from its north Wales base into Cheshire and in the early 1980s made significant construction acquisitions in Manchester and the Wirral.[3]

Redrow’s entry into housebuilding came in 1982 and by 1985 it had grown sufficiently to separate it out from the construction business. A small acquisition in Kent provided the base for a south-east housing operation; a midlands housing subsidiary was formed in 1986 and in 1987 Redrow bought Whelmar Lancashire, one of the five housing subsidiaries then being sold by Christian Salvesen. By now, Redrow was selling over 1,000 houses a year.[4] Further expansion took Redrow into the south-west, south Wales and Yorkshire but Redrow had pulled out of the vulnerable south-east market just ahead of the 1989 property collapse.

Redrow returned to the south-east in 1993 as the housing recession neared its end, buying Costain Homes from the troubled Costain Group; this took Redrow’s housing sales up to 2,000 a year.[3] The construction business was sold and with Redrow now purely a development business the Company was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1994.[5] Redrow grew steadily through the rest of the decade reaching sales of 3,000 a year but in 2000 Steve Morgan announced his intention to leave the company, retaining only a 14 percent stake in the Company. Paul Pedley, who had joined Redrow as finance director in 1995, took over as managing director.[4] In 2009, Steve Morgan returned to Redrow as Executive Chairman, having increased his shareholding to just under 30 percent.[6]

In 2010, the company's newly introduced broadband television channel Redrow.TV was named best marketing initiative at the Housebuilder Awards for Innovation.[7]

A Redrow development at Barton-upon-Humber

In 2011, Redrow sold its Scotland operation to Springfield Properties Plc to focus on increased investment in other areas, especially London and the south-east.[8]

In April 2014 Redrow was named Housebuilder of the Year at the Building Awards and chairman Steve Morgan was named Building Magazine Personality of the Year.[9]

In November 2014, Redrow won the Gold Award for Best Large Housebuilder at the industry's What House Awards [10]

In March 2015, Redrow received a five star award in the Home Builders Federation (HBF) annual customer satisfaction survey.[11]

In March 2016 Redrow lost its 5-star rating from the Home Builders Federation due to an increase in the proportion of buyers who said they were unhappy with the quality of their Redrow Home. [12]

Operations

The Company operates two main businesses:

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Financial Review" (PDF). Redrow plc. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
  2. ↑ "Redrow Delivers Another Set of Record Results" (PDF). Redrow plc. 8 September 2015. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 Burland and Whitehouse, The Redrow Way (1999)
  4. 1 2 Wellings, Fred: Dictionary of British Housebuilders (2006) Troubador. ISBN 978-0-9552965-0-5
  5. ↑ Company Prospectus
  6. ↑ Steve Morgan regains control of Redrow in swift coup The Times, 21 March 2009
  7. ↑ Housebuilder. "Housebuilder  : The UKs best read housebuilding magazine". house-builder.co.uk. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  8. ↑ Springfield Properties buys Redrow's Scottish business What House, 1 July 2011
  9. ↑ "2014 Winners". The Building Awards 2015. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  10. ↑ "The 2014 What House Awards". What house. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  11. ↑ http://www.hbf.co.uk/policy-activities/customer-satisfaction-survey/2015-results/
  12. ↑ http://www.hbf.co.uk/fileadmin/documents/Customer_Satisfaction/2016/CSS_2016.pdf
  13. ↑ "New Homes for Sale UK - Redrow". redrow.co.uk. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  14. ↑ Harrow Estates. "Experts in the UK Land and Property Markets". harrowestates.co.uk. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 7/14/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.