Award-winning developer Story Homes is progressing with its ambitious growth plans, which will see the housebuilder continue to expand across the North of England and deliver a landmark 1,000 new homes this year.
Story Homes, which was established by Fred Story in 1987 and celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, will hand over the 1,000 high quality homes to families in 2017-18 at more than 30 developments across the North of England.
This follows an extremely successful year for the company, which has a North West base in Chorley as well as regional offices in Carlisle and Newcastle. The developer saw a 43% increase in growth with more than 800 homes being built across Cumbria, South Scotland, the North West and North East. This ambitious plan is set to continue in to 2017-18 with expected growth of 27%.
During this expansion the company is committed to building a strong and dynamic culture and in the last 12 months it has welcomed nearly 200 new employees. Its future growth plan will be supported with the recruitment of a further 56 new employees, including 12 apprentices and four graduates.
Steve Errington, Chief Executive said: “We’ve delivered our highest-ever number of quality new homes and recruited nearly 200 new employees across our key regions – all whilst retaining our five-star rating for customer satisfaction from the Home Builders Federation and being listed in The Sunday Times Profit Track 100 again this year.
“We’ve welcomed a record number of employees in 2016-17 to help us achieve our plans, particularly in the North West which has proved to be a fast-growing region for us. In the last three months alone we have made a number of senior appointments in the North West, bringing a Land and Planning Director, a Production Director, Senior Land Manager, two Production Managers and a Field Sales Manager into the team to lead our ongoing growth in this region. Our commitment to our employees continues with an extensive training and development plan across the group.”
The North West continues to be an important region for Story Homes as it operates out of 10 developments in Lancashire including Kirkham, Preston and Lancaster, with a number of new developments in the pipeline across the region. This year the regional team will deliver more than 350 homes and has several schemes in the planning stages.
Steve Errington continued: “Expanding further into the North West has been part of our ongoing plans for some time, but we’re now stepping it up a gear. We’ve completed our strongest year to date with record home completions and an increase in turnover and profit.
“The North West is a crucial region in our growth plans as we move further down the country. We will be opening a regional satellite office in South Manchester to deliver our homes across Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire.
“To maintain our commitment to quality and customer service at a time of significant growth is a real testament to our passionate and committed team. We place a great deal of importance on ensuring that we recruit the right people into our business to help us to achieve our ambitious plans in line with our company values.
“We are now in a strong position to reach our targets and continue our rapid growth, with plans to expand into Cheshire and Yorkshire in the next 12-18 months. We look forward to marking our 30th anniversary year with the delivery of 1,000 new homes, which will provide much-needed high quality housing in the areas in which we operate, and by supporting the employment of more than 4,000 subcontractors in our supply chain.”
The housebuilder’s ambitious strategy promises to have a significant impact on the sector’s current economic and employment status.
Alongside recruitment for permanent positions, Story Homes hired more than 4,000 subcontractors, which helped to boost the economies of the four regions in which it operates.
Fred Story, owner and Chairman, added: “These achievements reflect Story Homes’ dedication towards building quality homes for generations to enjoy, as well as our commitment to going above and beyond customers’ expectations. The combination of financial success, customer satisfaction and regional expansion sets Story Homes up for a very prosperous future.”
