Willmott Dixon has started the process of merging its housing business into its construction arm, which it said would better suit the market where housing and commercial contracts are increasingly combined.
The contractor has confirmed that five senior staff have stepped down and that the consultancy process has begun – though most staff are expected to transfer to the construction business.
Announcing its annual results last week Rick Willmott, Willmott Dixon’s group chief executive, said: “The residential contracting market has evolved materially and we’re seeing a growing number of customers wanting to migrate relationships with current operational teams, who have delivered commercial or education projects for example, on to residential build contracts instead of being introduced to a new team from a different part of the business.”
“To ensure we are best positioned to deal with this strong and vibrant market opportunity, we need to change the way we operate by integrating our residential expertise and capability into our national construction business from July.
“This will see our residential projects and teams progressively migrate to their local construction office to better enable us to provide a seamless service with scope to expand across the whole country.”
Last week Willmott Dixon reported a near doubling of annual profit to £31.1m. However, revenue dipped to £1.22bn, which the firm said reflected a prioritsiation of “quality over quantity”.
