A housing group has rebranded as it gears up for a major expansion in the number of homes it builds.
Cartrefi Cymunedol Gwynedd was set up in 2010 after the stock transfer of some 6,300 homes from Gwynedd council.
Since then staff numbers have doubled to 300 and the company is building in five of the six counties of North Wales.
Now the group has been rebranded to ‘Adra (Welsh for home) and has plans to construct 550 affordable properties over the next three years.
The organisation has also set up a subsidiary - Medra Homes - which will build market price properties, with profits reinvested in the company.
Adra’s chief executive Ffrancon Williams said while they planned to expand they would not lose focus on supporting communities in Gwynedd and the importance to Welsh language and culture of ensuring the county had affordable homes.
Mr Williams told Business Post: “It is very exciting and as we grow we will create jobs in the local area.
“Since taking over we have doubled staff numbers from 150 to 300, over the next three years we want to increase that again by between 50 and 100, these will be local people.
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“We are currently in every North Wales county except Anglesey.
“The challenge is the availability of land - without suitable land we can’t build homes.
“The other challenge is funding which is why we are re-financing the business.”
He added: “We do have to manage growth carefully - our growth has been incremental.
“We plan 550 homes over the next three years and 1,300 over seven years. There is a need for new homes - it is a big priority for the Welsh Government - they want 20,000 homes over the current term, the political will is there and we want to help achieve that target.”
He added: “We have set up Medra Homes which will build market sale properties, Surplus money made from these sales will then go into building more affordable homes.”
Talking about his commitment to Gwynedd, he added: “We are not turning our back on our tenants, we are continuously working to improve.
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“We can’t turn our backs on the communities we serve, this is very important.
“It is not just about targeting the big conurbations, it is about looking for where the demand is, and that means rural communities as well.
“It is very important for the Welsh language and culture that we are building homes that local people in places like the Llyn Peninsula can afford, sometimes on a part ownership basis.
“It means that people with a decent salary can get on the housing ladder in these communities. Welsh communities and the Welsh language are very important to us.”
The new ambitions has seen them adopt new branding. Working with North Wales based design agency View Creative, the new brand has been developed to reflect the main findings of research about the housing association’s branding, conducted with a variety of stakeholder groups including tenants, staff and board members.
Mr Williams added: “Our rebrand marks an exciting time for us as a company.
“As well as broadening people’s perceptions of who we are and what we do, and who we support, we wanted a brand that would better reflect the modern and dynamic company that CCG has grown into over the past ten years.
“These are big changes coming in, but as a company we are always eager to stay ahead of the curve and develop our service offering and ensuring we have a robust financial future so that we can continue to invest in the housing stock we currently have.”
The new identity and name change to Adra has been rolled out with a fresh palette of vibrant colours across the company’s touchpoints.
This also heralds a new modern website and vehicle fleet which were scheduled to be updated anyway but coincide with the new branding work.