The merger in December of housebuilders Beazer Group plc and Bryant Group plc could spell good news for the timber industry.
The new company, Domus plc, says it is committed to developing the timber frame house manufacturing process and may build a third Torwood factory in due course.
Torwood, a subsidiary of Beazer, has pledged to increase the degree of prefabrication at its factories to cover more tasks normally performed on a building site.
In the past 12 months, 1,500 of the 8,200 new homes built by Beazer were of timber frame construction and the company has stated it wants timber frame to represent 50% of its new build.
Meanwhile, about 10% of the 3,961 houses built by Bryant Homes in the year to May 2000 were timber frame.
Beazer spokesperson Matthew Moth said: ‘Both companies are very committed to innovation and they will be looking to expand timber frame construction across the whole group.’
He said it was too early to say where the next Torwood timber frame factory might be built – currently has plants in Livingstone and Ipswich. But he added: ‘The aim will be to give capacity that covers their geographic spread which is now nationwide.
‘As a company, Domus will be building about 11,000 homes and a further 1,500 in their partnership business which is social housing.
‘This merger is not about size and wanting to be the biggest, but about bringing together two companies that are complementary to each other.’
Domus has a combined pro forma turnover and operating profit of approximately £1.5bn and approximately £200m respectively.
