- Crest Nicholson
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Crest Nicholson 
Type Private Industry Housebuilding Founded 1963 Headquarters Chertsey, UK Operating income £103 million (2007) Website www.crestnicholson.com Crest Nicholson is a British housebuilding company based in Chertsey, Surrey.
Contents
History
The Company was founded by Bryan Skinner in 1963 as Crest Homes and floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1968. One of the characteristics that differentiated Crest from most other housebuilders of the time was “not to hold large stocks of land”.[1] Reflecting Skinner’s background, marketing was stressed whereas the whole of the building process was sub-contracted.
Crest’s first diversification was in 1969 when it bought En-Tout-Cas, the leading name in tennis court construction. More significant was the 1971 acquisition of Tony Pidgley’s earth moving business. Pidgley teamed up with Jim Farrer, a board member and originally the estate agent who had provided Skinner with his first land. These two ran Crest’s housing until 1975 when they left to form Berkeley Homes.[2]
In 1972, a new holding company, Crest Securities, was formed to facilitate further diversification.[3] At the end of that year, Crest bought Camper & Nicholsons, the leading yacht maker, hence the change of name to Crest Nicholson. More unrelated acquisitions followed in the form of Lamson Engineering (1975), the spectacle makers Crofton (1979) and Greenwood Electronic (1985). Crest also bought the west-country construction firm of CH Pearce in 1985.
Bryan Skinner retired through ill health in 1983 and, gradually, much of the earlier strategy was reversed. Non-housing businesses were sold in the late 1980s and in the housing division Crest began to follow a policy of acquiring a long land bank.[2]
Crest Nicholson now builds over 1600 homes a year across approximately 45 sites, which are predominantly located in the Southern half of the UK.
The Group announced the formation of a new £100m London division in November 2011, aiming to deliver mid-range sites of between 50 and 150 units at a time, starting with sites in Old Street and Stockwell.
Financial
In 2011 the Group successfully completed a major debt restructuring, converting £359m of debt for equity, giving the Group a significantly strengthened balance sheet with net assets of £173m.
Awards
The Group is a consistent winner in many industry related awards, having recently been recognised in the 2011 Housebuilder Awards where it received the Sustainable Housebuilder of the year accolade. In addition to this, one of the highlights for the Company in 2011 was achieving a 5 out of 5 star rating in the HBF Annual Customer Satisfaction Survey for the second consecutive year.
The ultimate accolade is still the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Sustainable development which the Company received in 2007 in recognition of its contribution to the built environment
Partnerships
In 2010 Crest Nicholson joined forces with housebuilders Barratt Developments and Stewart Milne Group plus researcher BRE and innovative supplier H+H UK Ltd to create the AIMC4 consortium. The consortium is a unique partnership of companies, created to research, develop and pioneer the volume production of the low carbon homes for the future.
The AIMC4 consortium will develop and apply innovative materials, products and process to meet the Governments Code for Sustainable Homes, Level 4 energy performance, through innovative fabric and building services solutions thus embedding reduced carbon emissions within the performance of the dwelling.
References
- ^ Company prospectus September 1968
- ^ a b Wellings, Fred: Dictionary of British Housebuilders (2006) Troubador. ISBN 978-0-9552965-0-5
- ^ Company prospectus March 1972
External links
Categories:- Housebuilding companies of the United Kingdom
- Companies based in Surrey
- Companies established in 1963
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