Taylor Wimpey

Taylor Woodrow was founded in 1921, by 16-year-old Frank Taylor, who borrowed some money to build two houses in Blackpool. As he was too young to form his own company, his uncle Jack Woodrow lent his name to the business, and so it became Taylor, Woodrow Limited.[3]

In the 1930s, Taylor Woodrow diversified into building temporary hospitals, etc., and thereby moved into general construction.[3] Taylor Woodrow's main operations were in general construction with Taylor Woodrow Homes only being a small part of the group: indeed, housing sales actually declined, and at the beginning of the 1980s, Taylor Woodrow Homes was still only building around 500 to 600 houses a year.[4]

In January 2001, this changed as Taylor Woodrow acquired Bryant Group, a business founded in Birmingham in 1885 by Chris Bryant, for £556 million[5] and in October 2003 Taylor Woodrow acquired Wilson Connolly in a cash and shares deal worth £499 million.[6]

A Taylor Wimpey development at Diglis Basin in Worcester

George Wimpey was founded by George Wimpey and Walter Tomes (the latter sold out in 1893) as a stone-working partnership in 1880 in Hammersmith.[3]

George Wimpey died in 1913 at the age of 58. His family put the business up for sale in 1919. Godfrey Way Mitchell bought the firm and decided to retain the Wimpey name.[3] George Wimpey completed its first residential development, the Greenford Park Estate, in 1928.[3]

In the 1970s, George Wimpey became the United Kingdom's largest private housebuilder selling 106,440 homes in the decade, and in the 1980s, George Wimpey began to reinforce Wimpey Homes as a brand, focusing on quality compact housing. Advertising, featuring the famous Wimpey cat, ensured Wimpey Homes became a household name in house building.[7]

In March 1996, George Wimpey acquired McLean Homes, a business founded in the 1934 by John McLean, from Tarmac.[8] In August 2001, McAlpine Homes was acquired from Alfred McAlpine in a £463 million deal[9] and in October 2002, George Wimpey went on to acquire Laing Homes, a premium housebuilder, from John Laing for £295 million.[10]

In September 2008, Vinci bought the operations of Taylor Woodrow Construction[11] and in April 2009, the remaining activities of Taylor Woodrow Construction in Ghana were sold to management.[12] Then in March 2011, a property investment group backed by private equity firms acquired Taylor Wimpey's American and Canadian housebuilding businesses.[13]

On 23 March 2020, Taylor Wimpey "shut all its UK sites and sales centres ... following prime minister Boris Johnson's announcement of lockdown measures" in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom.[14] Six weeks after shutting down, the firm claimed to be "the first major housebuilder to unveil a timetable for restarting jobs", and said it would begin remobilisation in England and Wales on 4 May 2020.[15] Taylor Wimpey said that although all its show homes had been closed during the lockdown, sales had continued. "[T]otal orders grew by 200 during the shutdown to reach 10,880 homes, up from 10,291 in the order book a year ago."[14] Taylor Wimpey has also been busy running a manufacturing project with employees to supply "GP surgeries and care homes with reusable 3D printed face visors".[15]

In July 2020, Taylor Wimpey reported a £40m loss in the first half of 2020 mainly due to the impact of COVID-19 lockdown. Revenue more than halved to £754m. Completions fell 58% to 2,771 homes, compared to 6,541 during the first half of 2019.[16]