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Barratt Developments PLC

File:Barrattlogo.gif
Company type	Public (LSE: BDEV)
Industry	Housebuilding
Founded	1958
Headquarters	Newcastle, England, UK
Key people	Bob Lawson, Chairman Mark Clare, CEO
Revenue	£3,046.1 million (2008)
Operating income	£481.0 million (2008)
Net income	£300.4 million (2008)
Number of employees	circa 5,000
Website	www.barratthomes.co.uk

Barratt Developments PLC (LSE: BDEV) is one of the largest residential property development companies in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1958 by Sir Lawrie Barratt and has always been based in Newcastle upon Tyne. It has been listed on the London Stock Exchange since 1968 and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

History

The company was founded by Sir Lawrie Barratt in 1958 in Newcastle upon Tyne, initially concentrating on building homes for first–time buyers. The company diversified into building a wide range of houses in the 1980’s.

Barratt was for a long time considered the UK’s leading house builder. It was well–known within the construction industry for growing organically, i.e. through increased land purchases as opposed to large acquisitions.

In 1991 the Company was badly hit by a recession and recalled Lawrie Barratt from retirement: he retired for good in 1997 and remains Life President of the Company.

Mark Clare was appointed Chief Executive in succession to David Pretty in 2006.

Following the house price boom in the later 1990’s and early 2000’s, which saw a number of Barratt’s largest rivals, such as Persimmon, George Wimpey and Taylor Woodrow all acquire rivals to increases in size, Barratt broke its tradition of 30 years and acquired Wilson Bowden, best known for its David Wilson Homes brand, for £2.7bn in 2007. This brought the David Wilson, Ward Homes and Wilson Bowden Developments brands to the group. Wilson Bowden’s founder, David Wilson, retains a 5.61% stake as of May 2008.

As a result, it was briefly Britain's largest house builder by volume. However, it was eclipsed by the 2007 Taylor Wimpey merger, created by the merger of Taylor Woodrow and George Wimpey.

In 2008 the Company secured a restructuring of its banking covenant package.

Operations

UK house building

When Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister in 1979, she drastically reduced appropriations for all building programmes, especially public housing. However, her tax incentives to private owners offset this, and a further benefit was the opportunity for council home tenants to buy their homes off the council, which is still in practice today.

By the mid – 1980’s, Barratt had diversified into building executive homes, as Lawrie Barratt decided that due to rising house prices it would be better to attract a wider target market, including second and third time buyers and families. It also started using customer feedback to improve its house building process.

Margaret Thatcher famously purchased a house on one of Barratt's most up market estates, in Dulwich, South London, to use as a retirement home, though she has actually spent much of her retirement in a home in the central London district of Belgravia. This also proved to be an embarrassment for one of Barratt’s arch rivals, Taylor Woodrow, whose founder, Frank Taylor, was Margaret Thatcher’s friend and who gave political donations to the Conservative Party during her reign.

Barratt also used to have a self – created upmarket brand, KingsOak Homes. However, following the 2007 Wilson Bowden acquisition, the upmarket operations of Barratt use Wilson Bowden’s David Wilson Homes brand.

Commercial construction

Barratt owns and operates Wilson Bowden Developments, which develops commercial property in the UK. It was inherited as part of the 2007 Wilson Bowden acquisition.

North American operations

Barratt Developments entered the United States housing market in the 1980’s when it set up an American subsidiary called Barratt American in Southern California. The aim was to take advantage of the thriving housing market there, with an all in one package. Barratt Developments PLC sold Barratt American, Inc. in August 2004.

Offices

Barratt Developments is based in Newcastle upon Tyne. It operates a number of regional divisions: Barratt Scotland Ltd, Barratt Northern Ltd, Barratt Midlands Ltd, Barratt Southern Ltd and Barratt South East Ltd.

Tree logo

For several years, Barratt Homes has used an oak tree as its logo, and there have been at least three versions of it.

For a long time the company also used the slogan ‘Britain’s Premier House Builder’. The reasons for this is that Barratt is widely regarded as Britain’s best – known house builder amongst the general public, and some people still view Barratt Homes, along with George Wimpey, as the two large, mass – volume house builders in the UK.

Following the acquisition of Wilson Bowden in 2007, the Management decided to give the Barratt corporate identity a facelift. The same logo used by Barratt Developments PLC for corporate purposes and Barratt Homes for marketing purposes was scrapped, and the there are now two, slightly different logos for the two purposes, although they both still feature a tree.

In addition, the Barratt Homes slogan was changed to ‘built around you’, emphasising that for the previous fifty years, customer feedback had gone back into the building process to improve house building. The re – launch included a massive TV and newspaper advertising campaign.

External links

• Official site
• Barratt Developments PLC
• Yahoo profile
• DooYoo reviews