Chief exec says downturn will propel firm into top tier of housebuilders, as 500 staff put onto four-day week
Galliford Try chief executive Greg Fitzgerald has said that the hybrid housebuilder/contractor will become a top-five housebuilder within two years as a result of the downturn.
Speaking after a trading update this morning, he said the company would move up from its position as the eighth-largest housebuilder as its rivals struggled to build at the same volume due to their high debt.
Fitzgerald said: 鈥淲e鈥檒l be much further up the scale in two years. How many other housebuilders are out there at the moment sitting on cash?鈥�
In the trading update, the firm announed that its housing arm has introduced a four-day working week in a bid to cut costs in 鈥渁n extremely difficult market鈥�.
The contractor said that housing completions in 2008 were down 18% to 964 units and that the average selling price had fallen from 拢203,000 to 拢171,000.
Although the company said there was some re-emergence of interest in the investor market in December, it said sales reserved, contracted or completed at 31 December were down 40% to 拢281m, compared with 拢473m the previous year.
It said that for the financial year to 30 June 2009 it had secured 75% of projected sales compared to 65% at this point last year.
The company said that it was countering the affects of the deteriorating economy by focusing on construction markets in the public sector.
It said that 91% of its 拢1.7bn order book at 31 December was in the public sector and that it has secured 93% of anticipated revenues for the financial year to 30 June 2009.
Galliford Try confirmed that there will be a writedown of 拢50m in its half-year results.
No comments yet