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Barratt looks offsite for even greater profits

9 Sep 15 House-builder Barratt Developments is looking to increase its use of offsite construction in a bid to further drive up efficiency and profits.

Chief executive David Thomas
Chief executive David Thomas

Barratt reported a 45% rise in pre-tax profits for the year to 30th June 2015, reaching £565.5m (2014: £390.6m) on revenues up 19% to £3,759.5m (2014: £3,157.0m)

The company completed 16,447 new homes during the year (including joint ventures), an increase of nearly 11%.

Chief executive David Thomas said that Barratt was exploring technical innovations to make these numbers even better. He said: “We are implementing a number of quick wins in terms of lowering build costs, for example we expect to build c. 1,300 timber frame homes in FY16.

“Other innovations in the build process implemented during the year include new roofing and flooring solutions and we have started to trial other new products having assessed over 100 offsite construction suppliers. We are also looking to embrace the best methods of on and offsite construction to increase efficiency.”

Commercial development revenue was £57.2m (2014: £14.4m) with an operating profit of £6.1m (2014: loss of £1.0m).

“Going forward our commercial division will work closely with our house-building business to develop mixed-use schemes, and will seek to develop independent commercial schemes where they can be forward funded by third parties prior to commencement,” Mr Thomas said.

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MPU
MPU

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