黑洞社区

Housebuilder Bovis is considering expanding its use of offsite construction techniques as it responds to serious production problems which helped send the firm into the red last year.

On Monday, the firm said pre-tax profit was down 3% to 拢154m in the year to December 2016 on revenue of 拢1.05bn, up 11%.

It also said it was setting aside a 拢7m pot to sort out problems on its homes which have led to angry customers setting up a 鈥楤ovis Homes Victims Group鈥� on Facebook.

Interim chief executive Earl Sibley told 黑洞社区 the firm was looking to offsite as part of an 鈥渆nd-to-end鈥� review of production at the firm. He added: 鈥淲e鈥檙e looking at the methods of build. We already do some timber frame, whether we might extend that is something we will look at.

鈥淲e鈥檙e looking at how potentially we may use that because it does tap in to slightly different pools of labour. But we鈥檙e open-minded to trials in other directions as well.鈥�

He admitted that the firm鈥檚 relationship with suppliers were not consistently good enough and said it was now offering to pay suppliers weekly in order to help them with cash flow. He added that it was also looking to limit retentions held against those working on multiple sites.

Sibley said the firm was also reviewing its business structure and considering stricter limits on land purchases. But he declined to comment on reports Bovis shareholders are attempting to have the business put up for sale.

The firm said it would cut the number of homes it builds this year by up to 15% in order to get a grip on production issues.