Wilson Bowden plc was a British
housebuilding
Home construction or residential construction is the process of constructing a house, apartment building, or similar residential building generally referred to as a 'home' when giving consideration to the people who might now or someday reside t ...
and general
construction
Construction are processes involved in delivering buildings, infrastructure, industrial facilities, and associated activities through to the end of their life. It typically starts with planning, financing, and design that continues until the a ...
company headquartered in
Coalville
Coalville is a town in the district of North West Leicestershire in Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. In 2011, it had a population of 34,575. It lies on the A511 road, A511 between Leicester and Burton upon Trent, close to junct ...
in central England.
History
Wilson Bowden was the holding company for David Wilson Homes and its commercial property subsidiary, Wilson Bowden Properties, the name being adopted at the time of the group's flotation in 1987. David Wilson joined his father’s joinery workshop in 1960 and during that decade gradually moved the business into housebuilding. By the early 1970s, AH Wilson (as it was then named) was building around 150 houses per year in the Leicestershire area. A joint property investment with
First National Financial Corporation, ''Bowden Park Holdings'', was wholly acquired in 1973 shortly after First National got into financial difficulty.
David Wilson expanded substantially in the 1980s with sales rising from 300 to 1,600 within the decade. The firm's financial reports for 1989 included a record pre-tax profit of £40.3 million, being one of a few house builders that were able to increase profits that year. On the back of strong fiscal performance came
rights issue
A rights issue or rights offer is a dividend of subscription rights to buy additional securities in a company made to the company's existing security holders. When the rights are for equity securities, such as shares, in a public company, it can ...
s to raise funds from investors for further growth. Wilson Bowden was not heavily impacted by the
early 1990s recession
The early 1990s recession describes the period of economic downturn affecting much of the Western world in the early 1990s. The impacts of the recession contributed in part to the 1992 U.S. presidential election victory of Bill Clinton over incum ...
, unlike several of its competitors, an outcome that was attributed to the firm's relatively conservative land buying practices.
During 1993, the firm announced that house sales had risen by roughly 50 percent year-on-year.
During the mid 1990s, Wilson Bowden started to expand beyond its East Midlands heartland. New offices were opened in the West Midlands, Hereford, Hertfordshire and Kent in 1992; Leeds in 1993; Cheshire in 1997 and Glasgow in 1999. Wilson also completed several strategic acquisitions, such as the
Berkshire
Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...
-based firm ''Trencherwood'' in 1996, which had a dominant position in the West Berkshire land market, the long-established housing business of
Henry Boot plc
Henry Boot plc is a British property development business based in Sheffield, England. It was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1919,Henry Boot & Sons (London) Prospectus, 1919. becoming the first quoted housebuilder. Between the wars, Hen ...
in 2003, and the North West-centric developor Roland Bardsley Homes in 2006.
By the end of 1990s, Wilson was building over 4,000 units per year and was regarded as one of the most consistently successful of the quoted housebuilders.
Under a plan to double its prefabrication capacity, Wilson Bowden constructed its own factory in the early 2000s.
David Wilson ran the business for forty years. During the early 2000s, extensive efforts were put into implementing a controlled succession strategy. It was ultimately decided to put the company's ownership up for
auction
An auction is usually a process of Trade, buying and selling Good (economics), goods or Service (economics), services by offering them up for Bidding, bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from th ...
, the multistage process of which attracted the interest of numerous parties, including rival construction company
George Wimpey
George Wimpey Limited was a British construction firm that typically worked in the civil engineering and housebuilding markets. It was, during the 1970s, the largest homebuilder active in the UK.
Established in 1880 and originally based in H ...
and a consortium headed by the Scottish billionaire
Tom Hunter
Sir Thomas Blane Hunter (born 6 May 1961) is a Scottish businessman and philanthropist.
Sports Division
Hunter set up his first business after graduating from the University of Strathclyde as he was, in his own words, "unemployable". With a ...
. During April 2007, just months prior to the opening events of the
Great Recession
The Great Recession was a period of market decline in economies around the world that occurred from late 2007 to mid-2009. , the company was purchased by
Barratt Developments
Barratt Redrow plc is one of the largest residential property development companies in the United Kingdom operating across England, Wales and Scotland. It is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It was originally based in Newcastle upon Tyn ...
in exchange for £2.2 billion; the move made Barrett the biggest homebuilder in Britain, employing roughly 7,500 people at the time of the acquisition. Within one month of the sale being finalised, David Wilson had retired while the closure of several of the company's offices, the sale of its in-house plumbing and plant hire divisions as well as the discontinuation of its KingsOak Homes brand, had been announced; however, Barrett decided to retain the Wilson Bowden name for some activities.
Operations
The company had three divisions:
*David Wilson Homes: a general housebuilder that operated in most parts of England, Scotland and Wales
*Wilson City Homes: constructed urban residential buildings
*Wilson Bowden Developments Limited: undertook retail, leisure, industrial and office development projects
References
External links
David Wilson Homes official siteBarratt Homes official site
{{Construction industry of the United Kingdom
Housebuilding companies of the United Kingdom
Companies based in Leicestershire
Manufacturing companies established in 1961
British companies established in 1961
Barratt Developments