Housebuilder creates scores of jobs as it reopens huge timber frame factory
Vistry, the housebuilder which recently bought rival Countryside Partnerships, has re-opened its huge timber frame factory in the East Midlands.
Branded as Vistry Works East Midlands, the 356,000 sq ft Bardon facility has the capacity to deliver over 6,000 homes a year.
The new factory is expected to deliver over 2,000 homes in its first year of operation, with around 40% of these for new sites.
In addition to supplying new homes with open panel frames for the group’s mixed-tenure Countryside Partnerships business and housebuilding business, including Housing Association and PRS units, the new modern methods of construction (MMC) facility will meet the Future Homes Standard which comes into operation in 2025.
Scott Stothard, the group’s manufacturing & special projects director, said: “Vistry’s investment in the relaunched East Midlands timber frame facility creates the capability for us to capitalise, at scale, on the benefits of factory manufactured construction, delivering high quality sustainable homes faster and more economically than traditional methods of construction and in a more environmentally friendly way.
“As well as the opportunities this brings to help address the housing shortage, the relaunch of this new facility will be a boost to local job creation, creating a positive socio-economic impact in a region which is important to us.”
Earl Sibley, chief operating officer, Vistry Group, added: “The investment we’ve made illustrates our confidence in timber frame. The demand for new homes in this country shows no sign of abating now or in the long-term and by aligning our investment plans with the housing needs and consistent order book of our well-established partners,
we can deliver more homes across a broad mix of housing tenures using the production capacity our combined MMC facilities provide.”
Last July, it was revealed that Countryside was set to exit the facility – just two years after moving in.
The move to leave the premises came as part of a bid to cut the losses incurred by its manufacturing processes.
When it announced the move to Mountpark’s Bardon II scheme in June 2020, Countryside said it would create 100 jobs, with staff making its advanced modular panel system that would deliver around 3,250 new homes a year for the company’s three Midlands regions.
