Stewart Milne Homes North West England Ltd, the English arm of the Scottish housebuilder, has taken steps to begin the administration process
Stewart Milne is the latest firm to file for administration, as the Manchester-based division of the Scottish housebuilder faces a pre-tax loss of £1.1m.
After filing a notice of intention to appoint an administrator, it is unclear how many of the Group’s 1000-person workforce will be affected. Offices in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow are so far unaffected.
The whole group has been up for sale – intermittently – since 2022
The administration development follows a turbulent few years for Stewart Milne Group.
After reporting losses of £34m, the firm liquidated its subsidiary Countesswells Development, as well as selling Stewart Milne’s timber frame business to the Donaldson Group in 2021, generating a combined £59m.
But in April of the next year, founder and principal shareholder Stewart Milne announced his plans to retire after nearly five decades, and the entire group was put up for sale.
Speaking at the time, Stewart Milne said “The unprecedented events of the last two years have forced many to re-evaluate and, after considerable soul-searching, I have decided that the time is right to step back from the business I founded to prioritise my time for family, friends and other ventures I want to pursue…We are superbly placed to capitalise on the favourable market conditions and demand which are set to continue in the near-term.”
Stewart Milne Group has yet to find a buyer
This sale was temporarily paused after the economic chaos of the September 2022 mini-budget, but resumed in the summer of 2023.
In 2022, group results for the year to October 31 2022 showed a £16.5m pre-tax profit from turnover of £172.3m.
However, results for Stewart Milne Homes over the same period were less promising, with a turnover of £45.9m, generating a pre-tax loss of £1.1m.
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