Vistry is restructuring its division in an effort to overcome a range of problems that led to three profit warnings during the same period last year.
The company is forecasting a pre-tax profit of £250 million for the 2024 year, the results of which will be published in the spring.
However, this forecast is 40% lower than the builder’s initial forecast of £430 million and nearly £170 million lower than the 2023 results, which saw a profit of £419 million.
The first two warnings last year related to cost issues in the company’s southern division, which are currently estimated at £105 million for the 2024 financial year, an additional £50 million this year, and £10 million outside the current financial cycle.
The third warning, which the company issued just before Christmas, related to delays in several partnership deals and the decision to not continue certain expected land transactions.
In an update announced this morning, Vistry stated that it was reducing its operational divisions from six to three. Each division will be led by an executive director who will report directly to the CEO, Greg Fitzgerald.
According to the statement, all executive heads of the divisions are former divisional heads who are part of the company’s senior management team.
The divisions will receive support from newly appointed commercial directors, operations directors, and finance directors.
Also read: How much should the industry be concerned about Vistry?
The changes, according to the company, are aimed at reducing reporting lines and bringing the CEO closer to the business. In November of last year, the company announced the resignation of the Chief Operating Officer Earl Sibley.
This morning, Vistry also emphasized that it is actively working on addressing issues in the southern division of the business. "We have made significant progress in understanding and addressing the issues that arose in our former Southern division, and with the new operational leadership in place, we are confident that we will make swift progress in stabilizing the affected regions in the 2025 financial year," the company said.
Vistry also added that it has strengthened procedures for monthly land valuation reviews and has invested in boosting commercial confidence.
In a broker report by Investec, which last week questioned Vistry's medium-term profitability targets, it was stated: "It seems that the main message is the priority of cash generation over growth in the 2025 financial year, with a clear priority on stock and work reductions in process."
Vistry will announce its results on March 26 — initially scheduled for March 6. It is expected that revenue will grow by 9% to £4.4 billion, and the number of completed units will increase by 7%, to 17,200 units.