Persimmon plc
| 220px | |
| Public limited company | |
| Traded as | LSE: PSN |
| Industry | Housebuilding |
| Founded | 1972 |
| Headquarters | York, England |
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Key people
|
Nicholas Wrigley (Chairman) Jeff Fairburn (CEO) |
| Revenue | £2,573.9 million (2014)[1] |
| £465.3 million (2014)[1] | |
| £372.0 million (2014)[1] | |
| Website | www.persimmonhomes.com |
Persimmon plc is a British housebuilding company, headquartered in York, England. The Company is named after a horse which won the 1896 Derby and St. Leger for the Prince of Wales. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a former constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
History
Persimmon was founded by Duncan Davidson in 1972. After leaving George Wimpey, Davidson had formed Ryedale Homes in 1965, selling it to Comben Homes in 1972 for £600,000. Davidson restarted development again in the Yorkshire area; Persimmon began to expand regionally with the formation of an Anglian division in 1976 followed by operations in the midlands and the south-west.[2] In 1984, Persimmon bought Tony Fawcett’s Sketchmead company; Fawcett had been a director of Ryedale and he became deputy managing director at Persimmon. The enlarged company was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1985, by which time the Company was building around 1,000 houses a year.[3] Steady regional expansion took volumes up to 2,000 by 1988 with a target of 4,000 following the housing recession. Tony Fawcett had died in 1990 and in 1993 John White was appointed as chief executive with Davidson remaining as an executive chairman. In 1995, Persimmon made the first of a series of major acquisitions. Ideal Homes, once the largest housebuilder in the country and then part of Trafalgar House was bought for £176m giving the Group a much stronger presence in the south-east. This was followed by the purchase of the Scottish housing business of John Laing plc and Tilbury Douglas Homes.[2]
In 2001, Persimmon acquired Beazer Homes UK, for £612m, taking output to over 12,000 a year.[2] The deal came about after Beazer and Bryant announced a 'merger of equals' to create a new house builder called Domus.[4] However, Taylor Woodrow stepped in with a £556 million bid for Bryant, and Persimmon bought Beazer, a company named after its founder Brian Beazer, and originally started in Bath. The acquisition of Beazer brought with it Charles Church, a business founded by Charles and Susanna Church in 1965.[5]
In January 2006 Persimmon acquired Westbury, another listed UK house builder, for a total consideration of £643 million.[6]
Operations
It builds homes under the Persimmon homes, Charles Church and Westbury Partnerships brands.[7]
Criticism
Persimmon has regularly come in for criticism due to poor build quality on a number of their homes. Examples include wiring up sockets dangerously giving the potential to shock, installing wobbly bannisters, laying turf on builder's rubble rather than on newly laid soil and radiators not properly fixed to the wall.[8][9][10][11]
In addition, Persimmon have been criticised for their sales and aftercare processes which do not always live up to the "enjoyable" and "stress free" experiences promised in the company's own pledge.[12]
In 2013, Persimmon sold a house with a garage that is too narrow for a car to fit into.[13]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Wellings, Fred: Dictionary of British Housebuilders (2006) Troubador. ISBN 978-0-9552965-0-5
- ↑ Company Prospectus
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Persimmon: Corporate Profile
- ↑ BBC Watchdog: "More moans about new homes"
- ↑ ITV New Homes from Hell
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
External links
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