Redrow plc

Steve Morgan had been working as a site agent for Wellington Civil Engineering when, in 1974, the parent company decided it was to be closed. Morgan offered to take over the contract, borrowed £5,000 from his father, and completed the contract at a profit. Further work was carried out for Wellington and, still aged only 21, Morgan registered his new company – Redrow.[3] Redrow gradually expanded through small civil engineering work and, with Simon Macbryde, formed a separate building company; these were later merged to leave Macbryde with 17 percent of the enlarged company. Geographically, Redrow moved from its north Wales base into Cheshire and in the early 1980s made significant construction acquisitions in Manchester and the Wirral.[3]

Redrow's entry into housebuilding came in 1982 and by 1985 it had grown sufficiently to separate it out from the construction business. A small acquisition in Kent provided the base for a south-east housing operation; a midlands housing subsidiary was formed in 1986 and in 1987 Redrow bought Whelmar Lancashire, one of the five housing subsidiaries then being sold by Christian Salvesen. By now, Redrow was selling over 1,000 houses a year.[4] Further expansion took Redrow into the south-west, south Wales and Yorkshire but Redrow had pulled out of the vulnerable south-east market just ahead of the 1989 property collapse. Redrow returned to the south-east in 1993 as the housing recession neared its end, buying Costain Homes from the troubled Costain Group; this took Redrow's housing sales up to 2,000 a year.[3]

The construction business was sold and with Redrow now purely a development business the company was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1994.[5] Redrow grew steadily through the rest of the decade reaching sales of 3,000 a year. In 2000 Steve Morgan announced his intention to leave the company, retaining only a 14 percent stake in the company. Paul Pedley, who had joined Redrow as finance director in 1995, took over as managing director.[4] In 2006 Redrow saw its 50,000th customer.[6] In 2009, Steve Morgan returned to Redrow as Executive Chairman, having increased his shareholding to just under 30 percent.[7]

A Redrow development in Horsforth, West Yorkshire

In 2010 Redrow launched its Heritage Collection [8] followed by the Regent Collection [9] and more modern Abode Collection.[10]

In February 2017 Redrow acquired Radleigh Homes in Derby, an established company which delivered 200 new homes in 2016. It has since been re-branded to Redrow Homes (East Midlands).[11] Then, in September 2017, it was announced that Morgan would "ease back" to a non-executive chairman role with Redrow.[12]

On 18 October 2018 Redrow announced its 100,000th customer and released statistics on the number of direct jobs it had created (36,000), including 2,000 trainees, and a further 200,000 indirect employees.[13] On 7 November 2018, it was announced that Steve Morgan would retire from the company in March 2019 with John Tutte taking over as executive chairman and Matthew Pratt as chief operating officer.[14] Tutte himself announced his retirement in 2020 with Matthew Pratt taking over as Group Chief Executive.[15]

Like most housebuilders, Redrow temporarily closed most of its sites during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom during early 2020. The site closures pushed house sales down by a third. In a trading update, Redrow said it had completed 4,032 homes up to 28 June 2020, compared to 6,443 in 2019. Turnover was expected to be £1.34bn against £2.11bn in 2019.[16]

The company's flagship developments include:

• Woodford Garden Village: Woodford Garden Village in Cheshire is the first garden village for over 100 years in the North West of England and utilises over 500 acres of brownfield land, previously used for aircraft manufacturing. Redrow will be developing 900 new homes alongside 50 acres of green public spaces.[17]
• Ebbsfleet Green, Kent: Redrow's Ebbsfleet Green will comprise 950 new homes, along with a village centre, park, sports pitches, a hotel and a pub, and a primary school.[18] This development will form part of the plans for a garden city at Ebbsfleet, with up to 15,000 new homes, based predominately on brownfield land, or former quarries.[19] This development, is also part of the NHS Healthy New Towns network.[20]
• Plasdwr: Redrow is developing around 2,000 homes in Plasdwr, north west Cardiff. The £2 billion Cardiff ‘garden village’ will comprise four different zones, each with a central square and a primary school.[21]
• Colindale Gardens: a £1 billion mixed use development in north west London, which will have more than 2,900 homes. At 47 acres in total, the regeneration utilised a tower block and adjacent land from the Peel Centre, formerly part of the Hendon Police College.[22]
• Ledsham Garden Village: A 105-hectare site in South Wirral will become a sustainable new community of up to 2,000 homes. It will create employment, education and leisure opportunities and green open spaces.[23]
• Amington Garden Village, Tamworth: This 60-hectare former golf course site will feature up to 1,100 new homes and a package of community investment worth £14 million, including funding towards the cost of building a new primary school, a new community woodland and extending the Hodge Lane Local Nature Reserve.[24]

• Sudbrook: Redrow will develop 212 homes at the former Sudbrook Papermill in Monmouthshire. Homes for private sale will be a mixture of detached, semi-detached and terraced properties. Affordable units will comprise eight two-person flats, 10 two-bed houses and two three-bed house.[25]
• Vision at Devonport: Recently completed, this £70 million redevelopment of the Royal Navy South Yard Enclave in Devonport, Plymouth, includes 464 properties, shops, offices and extra care housing. It also included demolition of what had become known as Plymouth's ‘Berlin Wall’.[26]
• Buckshaw Village: After 15 years, redevelopment of the site of the former Royal Ordnance Factory (ROF Chorley) in Lancashire is nearing completion. As lead developer, Redrow launched its first homes for sale at the village in 2003 and, since then, has been responsible for 1,270 of the homes that make up the community. There is also a railway station, Tesco superstore, schools, bars, restaurants, local shops, a doctors’ surgery, community centre and a business park supporting 10,000 jobs.[27]

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