Willan Group back in market despite £1m portfolio downgrade
WILLAN Group, the family-owned property development and investment company, has begun the search for new property schemes within its North West heartland.
Company director Clive Richards told TheBusinessDesk.com that the company is looking for small commercial and/or residential schemes of less than £1m on which it plans to add value and trade as opposed to holding as investments.
“We are looking to take advantage of more realistic valuations but finding the right project is still going to be difficult as it is something that we want to trade,” he said. “If you are going to sell you have to find your out gain.”
The company, which is based at Sale in South Manchester, has just published newly-filed accounts for the year to April 2 which show that turnover fell by 8% to £2.2m, while pre-tax profits dropped by 10% to just over £641,000. A revaluation of its portfolio also wiped around £1m off its value, which meant that it finished the year with a valuation of £21.6m. Net assets were valued at £15.8m (2010: £16.4m).
“It’s been a year of getting down the level of voids and concentrating on what we’ve got already,” Richards told TheBusinessDesk.com.
Willan Group has been around since the 1930s and has a diverse portfolio of commercial, industrial and residential assets. These are mainly out-of-town business and industrial parks including the 20,336 sq ft Willan Trading Estate in Sale, the Greenwood Business Park in Salford near MediaCity:UK, the Royal Court office buildings at Gadbrook Park in Northwich and the Brooklands Place development in Sale.
Richards said that the company’s void rates had been higher than those to which it had usually been accustomed – due partly to the fact that it agreed a spate of three-year leases at the onset of the recession which have all recently been expiring.
“We’ve had our fair share of tenant failures as well. Again, these have been higher than we’re used to but not abnormal in the wider market context.”
He added that Willan had been adopting some working practices and trying to agree deals with contractors which would allow it to reduce service charges to tenants.
He argued that the firm was in a generally healthy financial state due to its low levels of gearing, but after a hiatus period during which it undertook no new development the firm has been engaging with agents again in a bid to do deals which have the ability to generate cash and allow it to retain profits.
“We have got access to funds and we are looking across a variety of sectors,” he said.
