Bovis Homes Group

Bovis Homes Group plc
Public (LSE: BVS)
Industry Housebuilding
Founded 1965
Headquarters New Ash Green, UK
Key people
 Ian Tyler, Chairman
Greg Fitzgerald, CEO
Revenue £1,054.8 million (2016)[1]
£160.0 million (2016)[1]
£120.8 million (2016)[1]
Website www.bovishomes.co.uk

Bovis Homes Group plc is a second tier national British housebuilding company based in New Ash Green, Kent. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

History

Bovis Homes’ origins lay in the early post-war housing operations of Bovis Holdings (see also Bovis Construction). Bovis had been acquiring housing land in the early 1950s but the level of housebuilding was modest until 1967 when it acquired Frank Sanderson’s Malcolm Sanderson Developments and the much larger RT Warren.[2] Frank Sanderson rapidly expanded Bovis’s housing through acquisition including the quoted Page-Johnson and Varney Holdings; by 1973 Bovis was probably the country’s second or third largest housebuilder, with sales of over 2,600.[3]

The secondary banking crisis adversely affected Bovis Holdings’ banking subsidiary and the Group had to be rescued by P&O in March 1974.[4] Frank Sanderson left Bovis in 1973 and Philip Warner was appointed managing director of Bovis Homes, a position he held for 25 years.[5] During the 1970s Bovis reduced its housing volumes as it concentrated on rebuilding profitability, but it began to expand again in the 1980s.[3]

The Company was demerged from P&O and was floated on the London Stock Exchange as Bovis Homes in 1997.[4] On 9 January 2017, the company announced that its chief executive David Ritchie, who had been at the company for 18 years, had stepped down with immediate effect; he was quoted to have said that it was time for someone new to lead the group.[6][7] Greg Fitzgerald took over as chief executive on 18 April 2017.

Operations

A Bovis Homes development near Southampton

Bovis Homes operates eight regional businesses and builds a wide range of properties from one-bedroom apartments up to six-bedroom executive houses. It has offices in New Ash Green, Reading, Exeter, Bishops Cleeve, Stafford, Coleshill and Milton Keynes.[8]

Controversies

Following the resignation of David Ritchie as the CEO on 9 January 2017,[6][7] shortly after the company had issued a profit warning following a slow down in sales in December 2016,[9] the company was at the centre of controversy when news reports appeared that it had tried to issue cash incentives to customers in order for them to complete purchases and move into unfinished new homes.[10]

After a troubled period of increased press coverage of complaints from customers about perceived shortcuts of quality of homes built by the company as well as the formation of a Facebook group by unhappy customers called “Bovis Homes Victims Group”, which also had a You Tube channel,[11][12][13][14] Bovis Homes interim CEO Earl Sibley acknowledged that their customer service levels had failed to meet the expected standards. He announced that the company would set aside £7m, to compensate customers who had been affected by finding problems with their new homes.[15][16] In the Directors statement, the company acknowledged that their customer service standard had been “declining for some time which combined with the delay in production, had caused them to start the year 2017 with a high level of customer service issues”[17]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Preliminary Results 2016". Bovis Homes Group. Retrieved 18 March 2017.
  2. ↑ The Times 25 February 1967
  3. 1 2 Wellings, Fred: Dictionary of British Housebuilders (2006) Troubador. ISBN 978-0-9552965-0-5.
  4. 1 2 Bovis Homes History
  5. ↑ Cooper, Peter, Building Relationships: The History of Bovis, Cassell, ISBN 0-297-82533-X
  6. 1 2 Sam Dean; Isabelle Fraser (2017-01-09). "Bovis Homes boss David Ritchie quits just days after house builder issues profit warning". The Telegraph. Retrieved 2017-01-11.
  7. 1 2 "David Ritchie stepping down as chief executive of Bovis Homes - BelfastTelegraph.co.uk". BelfastTelegraph. 2017-01-09. Retrieved 2017-01-11.
  8. ↑ "Contact us". Bovis Homes. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
  9. ↑ Rhiannon Bury (2016-12-28). "House builder Bovis warns that December slowdown could hit profits". The Telegraph. Retrieved 2017-01-12.
  10. ↑ John Knowles (2017-01-14). "Pay deals 'behind Bovis house of horrors'". The Times.
  11. ↑ Vaish, Costas Pitas and Esha. "British builder Bovis faces further profit fall after complaints about quality". Reuters UK. Retrieved 2017-03-14.
  12. ↑ "Subscribe to read". www.ft.com. Retrieved 2017-03-14.
  13. ↑ "Subscribe to read". www.ft.com. Retrieved 2017-03-14.
  14. ↑ "Bovis and its houses of so many horrors". Retrieved 2017-03-14.
  15. ↑ "Bovis Homes shares tumble as it says it will build fewer homes in 2017". The Telegraph. Retrieved 2017-03-14.
  16. ↑ "Poor customer service hits Bovis profit". BBC News. 2017-02-20. Retrieved 2017-03-14.
  17. ↑ "Final Results". otp.investis.com. Retrieved 2017-03-14.
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