Housebuilder Wilson Connolly (Wilcon) is to halve its production of timber frame homes this year.
The company also hinted its Prestoplan timber frame plant may be sold once efforts have been made to rebuild its customer base and enterprise value.
Wilcon announced the shift as it published its 2001 results, showing a £19.7m fall in pre-tax profits to £47.1m, and the outcome of a three-month strategic review. Prestoplan’s production will be cut from last year’s 53% of total homes built to just 25% this year.
Wilcon said its major shift to timber frame after acquiring Prestoplan in 2000 had been ‘without much attention being paid to the commercial benefits’.
The company said its timber frame plant would now look at developing more external sales. Once this was done, a Wilcon spokesperson said it would ‘again review the retention of this investment.’
