Gladedale increases turnover to £660m

Gladedale Holdings, the housebuilder, enjoyed a 37% surge in turnover to £660m last year.

Gladedale completed 3,900 units at an average sale price of £172,000.

A major rebranding exercise has seen the end of the 16 different brand names, acquired as a result of a vigorous takeover policy in recent years, with all properties now being sold under the Gladedale banner.

Latest results (12 months to 31 December 2006) show pre-tax profit strongly ahead at £85m. In the previous year, there was a profit of £62m from turnover of £480m.

Financing costs took their toll, running to £32m (£29m). During 2006, the opening net debt of £420m increased by 15% to £480m, largely as a result of the £90m debt that came with the Glenthistle and Premier Homes acquisitions during the year.

The two newcomers, both acquired in June 2006, contributed £30m towards group turnover and £700,000 by way of profit.

During the year, Gladedale formed three operating divisions: Northern (covering Scotland and the north of England) Central (based in Derbyshire) and Southern (based in Harefield).

Following Philip Curwin's resignation as finance director, Haydn Beazer has joined the group as his replacement.

During the year, Gladedale increased its landbank from 35,000 to 40,000 plots. Chief executive David Gaffney said: "We believe in holding a long landbank while the idiosyncrasies of the planning regime prove so difficult."

Gladedale states that its corporate strategy is to "achieve upper quartile performance" and three of its eight priorities are listed as:

• Focus on the provision of good quality product in good locations
• Employ well-trained staff and
• Operate in a transparent, accountable and honest manner.

The group had 22 employees in 2006, a rise of five over the previous year.

The highest-paid director received a wage of £1.1m, well ahead of the £340,000 figure in the previous year.

The dividend paid to shareholders was £6m (£4m).

The group's debt is set to grow further as a result of last week's £84m acquisition of publicly quoted housebuilder Ben Bailey. The Yorkshire-based group had debts of around £120m which Gladedale also took on.