Countryside Properties to build £6m manufacturing plant in Warrington

Housebuilder Countryside Properties is to invest £6m in a new manufacturing plant in Warrington.

The Essex-based group made the announcement as part of its half year financial report today.

Countryside currently operates a regional base in Warrington at Central Park.

It revealed plans for a modular panel timber frame plant in the town today, which it said is aimed at driving business growth.

The £6m facility will involve a closed panel timber frame factory of around 130,000 sq ft.

And the group confirmed that equipment is due to be delivered to the new site in the second half of this year.

Once it is up and running the plant will serve Countryside’s Northern and West Midlands regions.

It will be capable of producing 1,500 units a year, which will feed the group’s supply chain in the long term.

Countryside said it was unable to comment on the precise location of the plant, or how many jobs it will create.

In April Countryside acquired the Midlands-based Westleigh housing group for £135m, which included the Westframe timber frame factory based in Leicester.

Countryside said it plans to make further investment in this site.

Today’s figures showed Countryside achieved 1,655 housing completions in the six months to March 31, which is a 15% improvement on the same period last year.

Revenues were 14% better at £398.8m, and pre-tax profits of £73.7m were up from £60.3m the previous year.

Chief executive Ian Sutcliffe said: “We continue to deliver our strong organic growth trajectory with robust trading in all regions. We enter the second half in great shape and our acquisition of Westleigh will further increase our momentum by expanding our geographic reach and mixed tenure delivery.”