Wates rejig to focus on construction and housing

Grant Prior 9 years ago
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Wates Group is reorganising the business following recent expansion including the acquisitions of Shepherd and the Purchase Group.

The move is part of Wates’ overall strategy to grow into a £2billion business.

It will see the formation of a Construction Group business which will now include the construction divisions, SES engineering services and the Group’s overall BIM and Design function.

The expanded Construction Group business will be led by Dave Smith, Group Managing Director, Construction Group, and Chief Operating Officer for Wates Group.

The second significant move comes as a result of a change in the way the government is tackling the housing crisis.

This follows the move to develop more affordable housing and the requirement for more schemes to require investment funding.

To address this Wates has moved the housing business that has traditionally sat within Wates Living Space to now form part of the expanded Wates Residential Developments business.

This business will be led by David Brocklebank, as Group Managing Director, Residential Development Group.

Jo Jamieson will lead the Wates Living Space Homes business as part of the group reporting to David.

Living Space Maintenance will have a standalone business within Wates Group and will be headed up by David Morgan.

Andrew Davies, Wates CEO said: “This is an exciting time for our business.

“In the last 12 months we have made two significant acquisitions which have given us the opportunity to enter into new markets and expand our capabilities.

“Following the successful integration we felt there were clear synergies between some of our expanded business portfolio and also with the changing conditions within the market place we needed to refocus how we approach certain sectors.

“This realignment has also helped us to be much more clearly focused on our three key strategic markets moving into 2016; construction, property services and residential developments.

“We have ambitious growth targets set for the years ahead and we want to continue to enjoy the success we have seen over the last year, but with this we realise as a business we need to adapt and change to meet the new market conditions and also challenge ourselves in the way we work, in order to ensure we are a robust and highly efficient business.

“This is an exciting period for our business we have welcomed approximately 1,500 new colleagues in the last twelve months and seen our business transform.

“We have a strong order book of £3billion, as we move into 2016, putting us in a fantastic position to help drive us to be one of the most successful construction, property services and residential developments business within the UK.”

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