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Gloucestershire Business News

EU vote blamed for retirement home company's fall in profits

McCarthy & Stone, the retirement home builder, has blamed the Brexit vote for a fall in profits but says the future outlook is much brighter.

The company made a pre-tax profit of £21.8 million in the half-year to February-down 25 per cent from £29 million the previous year.

McCarthy & Stone is developing 83 flats for the elderly on the derelict area at Gloucester's Llanthony Wharf, creating 18 full-time jobs with up to 80 people working on the construction (see image of how it will look).

It will benefit the local economy by increasing footfall for local businesses and create employment.

In its half-yearly results McCarthy & Stone said orders for homes had been constrained by market uncertainty following the EU Referendum but that sales had now increased and the company had a strong balance sheet and robust financial position.

Commenting on today's results, John White, group chairman, said: "The group continues to address the increasing market demand for retirement housing generated by a rapidly ageing population and has made good progress in recovering its workflow momentum following the outcome of the EU Referendum last June.

"To meet this demand our strategic growth plan will see us almost double our build starts this year and our sales releases next year. Our strong progress on planning consent delivery ensures we are on track to achieve this."

Clive Fenton, chief executive officer, added: "We have made solid progress during this half year despite the headwinds created by the lower forward order book brought into the year and the weighting of expected completions from higher margin new sites into the second half of the year.

"Trading conditions have remained stable during the period and underlying reservation rates continue to keep pace with the prior year despite the lower number of sales releases during the period. Our forward order book remains strong and our build activity and planning successes leave us well-placed to deliver targeted FY17 and FY18 sales.

"We have sufficient land under control, much of which already has detailed planning consent, to deliver our strategic growth plan of building and selling more than 3,000 units per annum."

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