Growth Story as housebuilder seals £25m funding
CUMBRIAN housebuilder Story Homes is set to ramp-up its activity levels after securing a new £25m funding package.
The Carlisle-based group, an award winning developer of quality homes, has extended its facilities with Lloyds Bank and will expand its activities in Cumbria, the North East, the south west of Scotland and into Lancashire.
It intends to use the funding to bring forward schemes across a number of strategic land assets which it has bought over a period of years.
Despite the recession Story’s sales rates have held well. All land purchasing, planning, building and sales are undertaken in-house.
Founder and chairman Fred Story said: “We’ve maintained our growth throughout a challenging period for house building by developing a strategic land bank and by always putting the needs of our customers first.
“Over the past few years we’ve built up a strong portfolio of new sites which we’re now ready to bring forward and with the support from Lloyds we can begin to unlock new areas of growth.
Gary Chapman, relationship director for Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking for north Cumbria and the North East, said: “Story Homes is a company with strong fundamentals including a great management team who are passionate about what they produce with a real ambition to grow their business.”
“This is an exciting time for Story Homes, with Lloyds support it gives the company the liquidity it needs to unlock value from its existing land bank but also to increase the pace of build out as well as acquiring further sites”.
