Wates Living Space

Source: Construction Digital

Date :07/05/2008 14:18:08

Wates Living Space is following the proud traditions of its parent company, Wates Group. Exec finds out more

Written by Fiona Nicolson and Produced by Nicholas Davies

The Wates Group is more than a century old but shows no signs of slowing down. Recent year-end results show significant increases in the measurements that matter: pre-tax profit is up by 20 percent, turnover is up by ten percent and profit margins have improved too. The group also has a forward order book to be proud of, reporting a record level of £2 billion.

Not surprisingly, Wates is optimistic about the future. “The company has the strategy, the customers, the people and committed family owners, to continue delivering value growth,” says Paul Drechsler, chairman and chief executive.

The Wates Group can also be proud of the performance of its ‘offspring’, which are carrying on its traditions of success and achievement. The year-end results show growth in all of its five national businesses, including Wates Living Space, which was established in 2000 to focus on the affordable housing sector.

Although only eight years old, this company is demonstrating every sign of following in the family footsteps. Last year’s achievements include the refurbishment of as many as 20,000 homes and constructing 500 new build properties. And annual turnover has rocketed from £7 million in its first year to an estimated £260 million in 2008.

In a time of economic uncertainty, Living Space, like its parent company and siblings, is bucking the trend. Its contracts for new business won during March 2008 totalled £150 million, the highest ever in a single month, from projects with Sanctuary Housing, Raven Housing Trust and Liverpool Mutual Homes, among others.

Expansion

Living Space has a number of ambitions for the year ahead. While demand for its services is currently split 50/50 between refurbishment of homes and construction of new builds, the plan is to focus on increasing the stock of affordable housing. “We are already very active in this area, working with around 50 housing associations and local authorities,” confirms managing director, Ian Burnett. “And we are aiming to work with many more.”

Geographical expansion is in the pipeline too. Living Space sees potential for growth in a number of areas throughout the UK. The company already has seven offices across the country, in London, Manchester, Newcastle, Leeds, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Cardiff and there are more to come.

“We are looking to open three new offices over the next year or so,” explains Burnett. “One will probably be in the East End of London and another in Bristol. The East Midlands represents another as yet untapped area for us, so it is likely we will further develop the market there too.”

Living Space is also targeting Scotland as a prime area for future growth. Last month, around 90 percent of sales were generated from projects in England, but the remaining ten percent came from north of the border and Living Space has recently recruited a business development manager to maximise business potential and work with communities in this part of the UK.

Customer satisfaction

A high level of customer satisfaction is providing a solid foundation for the company’s expansion plans: “We are securing a high level of repeat business, as 84 percent of our business is from existing customers,” explains Burnett. “And we want to continue to develop long term relationships.” Independent research confirms that this focus is delivering results. The company’s customer satisfaction rating last year increased from an already enviable 96 percent to 97 percent.

Investing in people

There is another reason why Living Space is going from strength to strength: its investment in people is paying dividends. “People are the core of our business,” says Burnett, “they’re the only asset we have.”

So, while the company’s financial capital continues to grow, they make sure its human capital increases and thrives too. The proof is in the numbers: last year the company recruited 96 new staff and promoted 78 of its employees, which represents almost ten percent of its total workforce.

And the result is a very healthy staff retention rate of 88 percent. “People do stay with us for a long time,” reflects Burnett. “No one in my management team has been with us for less than ten years and one of our staff retired recently after 42 years with the company.“

Burnett does not take this indication of contentment for granted. “We’ve always done staff feedback surveys and last year we commissioned an independent research company to conduct a survey of staff engagement levels. The score was 84 percent, which we’re told places us in the top ten percent of UK companies – we’re very pleased to have achieved that.”

The environment

While the core business and focus of Living Space is construction and refurbishment, it does not lose sight of the potential impact of its operations. Health and safety of staff on site is of paramount importance. “Eighty-one percent of our sites are injury free,” reports Burnett, who has been in the construction industry for more than 30 years. And the goal is to improve on that statistic: “We are aiming for zero accidents,” he adds. “People should expect to come home unharmed from their place of work.”

The environment is also a key concern. Living Space has achieved environment management standard ISO14001 accreditation, all of its offices implement a tailored environmental management plan and the company has made inroads into tackling the issue of waste, a perennial problem for the construction industry as a whole. It now recycles 84 percent of all site waste and is actively seeking to further increase this figure.

Living Space is also committed to the construction of more environmentally friendly homes and is building on 100 percent Brownfield sites. It has an entire department dedicated to the issue of sustainability and is making progress towards the government’s target of zero-carbon homes by 2016.

The concept of building zero-carbon properties is not new to Wates businesses either, and they already have the necessary knowledge and experience to draw on. “We recently discovered that we had built a zero carbon house in Wales more than 40 years ago,” says Burnett: “Maybe we were ahead of our time.”

Click here to view the corporate brochure on Wates Living Space