Taylor Woodrow
 |
|
| Private | |
| Industry | Housebuilding |
| Founded | 1921 |
| Headquarters | London, England |
|
Key people
|
Norman Askew, Chairman Ian Smith, CEO |
| Revenue | £3,572.1 million (2006) |
| £469.8 million (2006) | |
| £290.6 million (2006) | |
|
Number of employees
|
8,132 (2005) |
| Parent | Taylor Wimpey plc |
| Website | www.taylorwoodrow.com |
Taylor Woodrow was one of the largest housebuilding and general construction companies in Britain. It was listed on the and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index until its merger with rival George Wimpey to create Taylor Wimpey on 3 July 2007.
Frank Taylor was working in the family fruit wholesaling business in Blackpool when, at the age of 16, he persuaded his father that he could build a house for them to live in. With some capital from his father and a loan from the bank, Frank Taylor built a pair of semi-detached houses, selling one at a good profit. It was only after financing Taylor’s growing housebuilding work for another two years that the bank manager realised that his client was under the legal age for conveying land and uncle Jack Woodrow was brought into the business, creating the Taylor Woodrow name.
In 1930, Frank Taylor moved down from Blackpool to London where Taylor Woodrow rapidly expanded the scale of its private housebuilding - by the mid-1930s it was building at a rate of 1,200-1,500 houses a year. The company built over 1,000 houses at Grange Park in Hayes and set up its headquarters in Adrienne Avenue in Southall.
In 1935, the various housebuilding companies were amalgamated and floated on the as Taylor Woodrow Estates.
In 1937, Taylor Woodrow Construction was formed and, after a modest start, the company was soon engaged in defence work. With the outbreak of war in 1939, all private housing development stopped. For six years Taylor Woodrow built military camps, airfields and factories culminating in work on the Mulberry harbour units.
By the end of the war, Taylor Woodrow had become a substantial construction business. The expertise was now turned to civil construction work at home and the start of what was to become the group's international business. The first overseas construction was in East Africa where, amongst other things, Taylor Woodrow was involved in the notorious Groundnut Scheme. Later moves were into west and South Africa and, in the 1950s, Taylor Woodrow expanded into Australia, Canada (including housing) and, most important of all, the middle east. At home, Taylor Woodrow Construction engaged in a wide variety of work, both for the private and public sectors, but what stood out was its role in the United Kingdom power generation industry: after a string of conventional power stations, the company was the contractor for the world's first commercial nuclear power station, Calder Hall, followed by Hartlepool, Hinkley Point A, Wylfa and Sizewell A. In the private sector, notable contracts included terminal buildings at London Heathrow airport, and the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral.
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Wikipedia