Kier picks up Southdale after collapse
The North West division of social housing contractor Southdale Homes has been acquired by Kier Living after falling into administration due to a number of loss-making projects.
Southdale opened its regional office in Warrington in September 2010. The company had a turnover of £30m.
Clients included Wulvern Housing, St Vincents Housing Association, New Fylde Housing, and Great Places Housing Group.
The company was headquartered in Halifax. Of more than 200 staff 87 were made redundant this week and 128 offered jobs by Kier.
The move strengthens Kier's residential division, increasing employee numbers to over 520 and substantially expanding its presence in the north of England.
John Anderson, executive director of Kier Living, said: "Today represents an important milestone for Kier Living as we expand our presence in the north of England in order to deliver our growth plans, as set out in Kier's strategy Vision 2020.
"Nationally Kier Living plans to increase output from around 1,500 units per annum currently, to around 4,000 units by 2020.
"Not only will we be able to use the combined capability and expertise of the two teams to deliver existing developments, we will also be able to expand our offering to a wider range of clients, and deliver projects of an increased scale. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Southdale employees to Kier and look forward to continuing our journey of growth with them."
The administrators are AlixPartners Services.
