Taylor Wimpey back in profit

3rd Mar 2011 08:26

Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey returned to profit in 2010 and has made a positive start to the current year with prices up in some places.The firm made a profit before tax and one-off items of £75.1m compared with a £96.1m loss in 2009 on revenue up a fraction at £2.6bn despite total completions falling from 15,166 to 14,272. Including exceptional, a loss of £640.6m the year before turned into a £259.3m profit this time.Margin is the priority rather than volume growth, the firm says, with a drop in completions in both the UK and North America offset by growth in average selling prices.Completions in the UK fell 2.2% to 9,962, but the average selling price increased 7% to £171,000 from £160,000. That pushed revenue up 2% to £1.74bn.Interest in buying the company's North American business, first flagged in January, is still being evaluated."The significant improvement in our performance during 2010 reflects our disciplined focus on margin ahead of volume growth," explained boss Pete Redfern."We have continued to improve the quality of our landbank and add value to our existing sites through replans and operational efficiency. We now have the financing in place to enable us to continue that progress towards our aim of achieving double digit margins in 2012."