York housebuilding company's half-year results reveal room for improvement

Persimmon Plc has revealed its half year results for the six months to June 30, 2019.

The York-headquartered housebuilding firm’s highlights included a major investment in improving customer care, with an additional £140m boost and around a £15m rise in Persimmon’s annual customer care spend.

The company’s profit before tax currently stands at £509.3m. In 2018, this figure stood at £516.3m.

Significant investment in improving customer care, with an additional c. £140m invested in work in progress and an estimated £15m increase in annual customer care spend.

However, Persimmon’s homes sold declined to 7,584 new homes, compared to 2018 when 8,072 were sold. Its group revenue is also 4.5 per cent lower at £1.754bn. Last year, this stood at £1.836bn.

Dave Jenkinson, Persimmon’s group chief executive, gave his say on the results: “Our customer satisfaction ratings for the current HBF survey year are showing improvement.

“The improvements to our customer service approach had two main impacts in the period. First, customer service spend increased by c. 40 per cent year-on-year and these additional initiatives are anticipated to increase our annual customer care costs by an estimated £15m.

“Second, and as noted earlier in the year, our decision to invest an additional c. £140m in work in progress as we held back some sites for later sales release to give customers more accurate moving-in dates reduced the group’s overall sales volumes.

“Allowing for these impacts, Persimmon’s trading in the first half of 2019 was strong.”