Crest Nicholson Homes

Head Office and Southern Region

Crest House
Pyrcroft Road
Chertsey
Surrey KT16 9GN

Tel: 01932 580 444 (Southern Office)

Tel: 01932 580 555 (Head Office)
Fax: 0870 336 3991

E mail: south@crestnicholson.com

South Region
Customer Service South

Tel: 01932 580444  Tel: 0808 168 6171

E mail: customer.serviceso@crestnicholson.com

London Region
London Customer Service
Tel: 0808 168 6170

E mail: customerservicelo@crestnicholson.com

Out of office emergency number all regions

Tel: 0845 604 4424

Regeneration Office

Crest House
Pyrcroft Road
Chertsey
Surrey   KT16 9GN

Tel: 01932 580 333

E mail: regeneration@crestnicholson.com

Customer Service
Tel: 0808 168 6168

Fax: 0870 336 3992

E mail: custservicecnr@crestnicholson.com

South West Region

Crest House
Lime Kiln Close
Stoke Gifford
Bristol BS34 8ST

Tel: 0117 923 6600
Fax: 0117 969 5792

E mail: southwest@crestnicholson.com

Customer Service

Tel: 0808 168 6172

E mail: customer.servicesw@crestnicholson.com

Eastern Region

Academy Place

1-9 Brook Street
Brentwood
Essex  CM14 5NQ

Tel:  01277 693 230
Fax: 01277 693 277

E mail: eastern@crestnicholson.com

Customer Service

Tel: 0808 168 6169

E mail: customer.serviceea@crestnicholson.com

Chiltern Region
Building 2

Abbey View

St Albans

Hertfordshire

AL1 2PS

Tel: 01727 616940

chiltern@crestnicholson.com

Customer Service

Tel:  03331 360 360

customerservicech@crestnicholson.com

Midlands Region
1st Floor, Pacific House, Relay Point

Tamworth

Staffordshire

B77 5PA

Tel: 0121 435 1100

For more information email:

midlands@crestnicholson.com

Customer Service

Tel:  0333 137 5000

customerservicemd@crestnicholson.com

Crest Nicholson registered office

Crest Nicholson Limited

Crest House, Pyrcroft Road
Chertsey
Surrey, KT16 9GN

Tel:  01932 580555

Fax: 0870 336 3990

E mail: info@crestnicholson.com

Out of office emergency number all Regions Tel: 0845 604 4424

Information on national house builders

Redrow Homes

Berkeley Homes

Linden Homes

Bellway Homes

Miller Homes

Bovis Homes

Crest Homes

Bloor Homes

Persimmon Homes

Barratt Homes

Taylor Wimpey Homes

Crest Nicholson Homes regional offices

History

The Company was originally founded by Bryan Skinner in 1963 as Crest Homes and floated on the London Stock Exchange five years later. Crest bought En-Tout-Cas, a leading name in tennis court construction in 1969. In 1971, Crest acquired Tony Pidgley’s earth moving business. Pidgley teamed up with Jim Farrer, a board member and originally the estate agent that had provided Skinner with his first land. The two ran Crest Homes until 1975 when they left to form Berkeley Homes.

A new company Crest Securities, was formed in 1972 to facilitate further diversification. At the end of that year, Crest bought the leading yacht maker Camper Nicholsons, giving rise to the current name Crest Nicholson. Other acquisitions included Lamson Engineering (1975), Crofton (1979), Greenwood Electronic (1985) and the west-country construction firm of CH Pearce in 1985.

Bryan Skinner retired in 1983 and the gradual process of disposal of the non-housing businesses began in the late 80’s enabling the housing division to follow a policy of acquiring a long-term land bank.

Crest was taken private on 3rd May 2007 after a £1.2bn take-over by HBOS and Scottish entrepreneur Sir Tom Hunter founder of Kwik-Fit. When the housing market crashed, Sir Tom's equity of around £45m was written-off along with the £648m of debt. At the time Crest's management were given a 10pc stake as an incentive. Crest’s other owners included a collection of banks and hedge funds.

Crest became owned by a consortium of 24 banks after a £630m debt-for-equity swap in March 2009. This unwound a debt-fuelled £1.2bn takeover of the housebuilder by Sir Tom Hunter and HBOS in 2007. Despite this, Crest Nicholson was still saddled with more than £500m of debt, racking up huge interest bills.

In April 2009 Hugh Osmond, a businessman who made his name at Pizza Express and Punch Taverns, made a £350m approach for Crest through his new Horizon investment venture. This was rejected by company. At that time, other house builders including Persimmon, Galliford Try and Redrow were also thought to be also considering a bid for the company. In the accounts to 31 October 2009, Crest made a £50.7m loss, making its debt burden difficult to support.

In September 2010 the US debt fund specialist Varde swooped on Crest, buying a 30% equity stake and a quarter of the company’s loans from the Lloyds Banking Group in a £150m deal. The hedge fund then demanded the remaining owners and management work to refinance and restructure the company's debts. The US investment company is known as a "loan to own" investor, acquiring a company debt with a view to taking large ownership positions in target companies.

Varde had been secretly buying Crest's £500m debt pile with the intention to clear the 75% mark. This enabled Varde to implement a scheme of arrangement that cut Crest's borrowings and complete a take-over through a debt-for-equity swap. On 23rd March 2011, Crest wrote to their lenders informing them that Varde now controls more than 80% of the company and that it is working with the hedge fund on a formal restructuring of the balance sheet. Crest's management, including chief executive Stephen Stone, retains ownership of around 10% of the company under Varde's plans.

Crest had loans of £431 million which were due for repayment in 2013. Crest Nicholson re floated on the London stock Exchange on 13 February 2013 prices at 220p. This raised £225 million with £169 being paid to existing shareholders and £56 million to pay down loans.

Key Directors:

Iain Ferguson     Group Chairman

Peter Truscott    Group Chief Executive

Number of new homes built in 2019/20 financial year ended 31 October 2021 - 2,407

2020 - 2,247 : 2019 - 2,912 : 2018 - 3,020 : 2017 - 2,935 : 2016 - 2,870  : 2015 - 2,725 : 2014 - 2,530 2013 - 2,172 2012 - 1,882 2011 - 1,520 : 2010 - 1,609  : 2009 - 1,878  

Awards

Number of NHBC awards per year (averaged over last thirteen years)

8 Quality awards 3 Seal of Excellence awards.

Homes per quality award ratio for 2021 - 1,203 homes built per award.

2020 - 561 : 2019 - 416 : 2018 - 431 : 2017 - 734  : 2016 - 359 : 2015 - 454  

2014 - 211 : 2013 - 310 : 2012 - 269 : 2011 - 152  : 2010 - 178

The lower the number the better the quality.

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Crest Nicholson Homes Regional Offices  (last updated January 2019)