Award-winning housebuilder The Hill Group has released its financial accounts for the year ended 2021. The UK’s second largest privately owned housebuilder posted record revenue of £753m an uplift of 15% on the year before, and net profits of £65.1m, up 47% on the previous year. The results display how the company has successfully evolved into a highly productive and resilient organisation primed for continued growth, completing 2,318 homes in the past year, and a healthy 8,300 homes in its development pipeline.
The Hill Group has an ambitious five-year business plan to increase the size of its business turnover to £1.2bn by 2025. The accounts for 2021 show that the organisation is well-placed to achieve those objectives with a strong balance sheet showing £163m of net cash, with net assets having grown to £273m.
In the past year, The Hill Group made a series of structural changes to the business to create a platform for sustainable growth, with substantial headroom in financial and operational capacity for continued growth in the pipeline. In December 2021, the housebuilder completed refinancing its revolving credit facility via a sustainability-linked loan (SLL) valued at £220m, with interest tied to the company’s sustainability performance. Hill’s new SLL is a clear demonstration of the confidence leading banks have in the company’s business model and its reputation as one the UK’s leading sustainable developers.
Hill’s commitment to sustainability is further underlined by the introduction of a progressive Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) strategy, now embedded within its core business principles. The strategy sets out a number of ambitious targets – including net zero carbon in business operations and net zero operational carbon in the homes built by 2030 – and ensures full, ongoing transparency in its annual reporting.
Further structural changes include the formation of an Executive Committee. This draws upon the experience of seven directors from across the business, including four members of its current Holdings Board and finance, operations, and sales and marketing. As the company continues to expand, the new structure ensures Hill remains dexterous across all operational areas, while retaining the leadership agility of a privately owned company.
All regional operations continued to perform remarkably well during 2021 despite the many labour and material issues faced by the industry. Hill’s Bristol based team is now on site mobilising its first projects, and the housebuilder plans to continue expansion with a further regional operation being set up in the Midlands over the coming months.
Residential sales have continued to exceed expectations across the whole portfolio, with exceptional results achieved in Cambridge at both Knights Park and Marleigh, to name but two developments where demand has outstripped supply.
This impressive momentum has been carried into 2022 – where financial performance is expected to be similar to that of 2021, in line with Hill’s business plan – before sustained growth resumes towards the 2025 targets as the housebuilder enters its next period of planned growth.
Andy Hill, Chief Executive Officer of The Hill Group comments: “Performance has once again been strong in our core business, bringing high-quality housing to market, either as a private developer, joint venture partner, or as a partner to various residential providers. This year has also seen us bidding for, winning, and delivering more extensive and ambitious projects – especially widescale regeneration schemes – which will assist in driving our planned growth.”
“The excellent performance we have achieved this year, coupled with our new leadership structure and embedded ESG strategy, ensures we can be confident of achieving our growth targets and succeeding in our vision to be the UK’s most trusted housebuilder creating exceptional homes and sustainable communities.”
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