Construction/Football
2015: No.7 - £650m
2014: No.8 - £510m
The general uplift in the housing market – boosted by the Government’s “Help to Buy” scheme is once again good news for Wolverhampton . His house-building firm Redrow – which has just celebrated its 40th year in business – is seeing a big jump in performance.
Redrow has recorded a sparkling full year earnings surge on the back of higher prices and more completions. In the year to the end of June 2014, revenue grew by 43 per cent to £864.5 million, driven by .
READ MORE: {}
But pre-tax profits were up a massive 91 per cent to £132.6 million and chairman Steve Morgan doubled dividends to 2p a share.
All this comes on top of a healthy performances in the previous two years and Steve Morgan is predicting the bubble is showing no signs of bursting, with an order book standing at £482 million.
Net debt in the year is running at around £150 million against £91 million in 2013 as a consequence of ongoing investment in the company’s land bank, with nearly 17,000 contracted plots.
The company is building homes in Telford and Wolverhampton but it is the booming London house market which is boosting revenue. In Wolverhampton, a £60 million luxury housing development on the site of a former university campus is nearing completion. The Compton Park development will feature 55 luxury four and five-bedroom houses valued at £700,000 each – a move which Morgan predicts will attract high earners to the city.
Steve Morgan has and planning announcements, but still believes a restricted supply of mortgages continues to constrain the market.
Most Read
The picture isn’t quite so rosy at Wolverhampton Wanderers, of which Morgan is owner and chairman, as the full cost of relegation from the Premier League becomes apparent.
The club dropped two divisions in as many years, with the inevitable impact on turnover, income, gate receipts and profits. The club’s financial performance dropped sharply in the year to May 2013 following relegation from the Premier League and then the Championship. A profit in 2012 turned into a £30 million loss following a £27.5 million write-off on the value of playing staff. Player trading generated a profit of £15.2 million but the wage bill remains high.
Morgan has vowed to stand by Wolves despite its losses and development goes on at Molineux, with a £7 million full-size indoor academy arena recently opened, giving Wolves some of the best facilities in the country. The new facility has a full-size indoor training pitch with viewing balcony, dressing rooms, classrooms, gym, medical facilities and a Wolves “family suite” overlooking the outdoor floodlit pitch.
Steve Morgan bought Wolves from Sir Jack Hayward in 2007 for just £10 and pledged to the club and its ground, something he is likely to exceed comfortably.
Morgan, aged 61, began his successful business career in construction in 1974 when he founded Redrow Homes with the help of a £5,000 loan from his father. He built it up into one of the country’s most successful house builders. When it floated in 2000, he sold shares worth almost £240 million. In 2012, he abandoned a plan to take it back into private ownership.
In 2001, he founded the Morgan Foundation which helps charities in Cheshire, Shropshire and North Wales, and funds Wolves Aid, which supports local charities.
Born in Garston, south Liverpool, . He received the OBE in 1992 for services to construction. In 2010, he was made an Honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of Wolverhampton.