Business
Trading Update
Trading Update.
About this update from Crest Nicholson Holdings Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n\nCrest Nicholson Holdings plc\n(the \"Group\" or \"Crest Nicholson\")\nEncouraging start to the year with early evidence of operational improvements\nCapital Markets Day to set out refreshed strategic direction and medium-term guidance\nCrest Nicholson will today host a Capital Markets Day for analysts and institutional investors in Windsor. Martyn Clark (CEO) and Bill Floydd (CFO) will host the event, where they will outline clear plans and strategic actions designed to drive the business forward and to position Crest Nicholson for sustainable growth and returns.\nThe CMD presentation will focus on:\n· Analysis of the evolving housing market and the future opportunities for Crest Nicholson focusing on the attractive mid premium market which is aligned with Crest Nicholson's brand and land portfolio\n· Details of the four key strategic priorities to deliver enhanced and sustainable profitability and returns:\no Building exceptional quality homes, efficiently\no Delivering outstanding customer experience\no Operational and commercial excellence\no Optimising value of the land portfolio\n· Roadmap towards our ambition to deliver a significant uplift in medium-term forecast performance and shareholder value creation\n· Medium-term guidance (FY24 to FY29):\no Mid-single digit % growth per annum in home completions over 5 years to 2,300+ units\no Average annual improvement of gross margins c.100-150bps per annum to 20%+\no Overhead reduction to c.7% of revenue by FY27\no Average ROCE improvement of c.200bps per annum to 13%+\nCurrent trading\nWe have seen an encouraging start to the year. In the 10 week period to 14 March, the open market sales rate (excluding bulk) was 0.61 (FY24 0.50), supported by our self-help initiatives including ongoing training and upskilling of the sales team, revised incentive schemes and enhancing our product offering.\nThe Group has continued to drive higher levels of customer satisfaction achieving a score of 95.0% for the 2024 survey year (2023: 87.3%).\nWe remain on track to deliver results in line with guidance in the current financial year, with our cash performance tracking better than expected in the first four months.\nMark...