Crest Nicholson - History

History

The Company was founded by Bryan Skinner in 1963 as Crest Homes and floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1968. One of the characteristics that differentiated Crest from most other housebuilders of the time was “not to hold large stocks of land”. Reflecting Skinner’s background, marketing was stressed whereas the whole of the building process was sub-contracted.

Crest’s first diversification was in 1969 when it bought En-Tout-Cas, the leading name in tennis court construction. More significant was the 1971 acquisition of Tony Pidgley’s earth moving business. Pidgley teamed up with Jim Farrer, a board member and originally the estate agent who had provided Skinner with his first land. These two ran Crest’s housing until 1975 when they left to form Berkeley Homes.

In 1972, a new holding company, Crest Securities, was formed to facilitate further diversification. At the end of that year, Crest bought Camper & Nicholsons, the leading yacht maker, hence the change of name to Crest Nicholson. More unrelated acquisitions followed in the form of Lamson Engineering (1975), the spectacle makers Crofton (1979) and Greenwood Electronic (1985). Crest also bought the west-country construction firm of CH Pearce in 1985.

Bryan Skinner retired through ill health in 1983 and, gradually, much of the earlier strategy was reversed. Non-housing businesses were sold in the late 1980s and in the housing division Crest began to follow a policy of acquiring a long land bank.

Crest Nicholson now builds over 1600 homes a year across approximately 45 sites, which are predominantly located in the Southern half of the UK.

The Group announced the formation of a new £100m London division in November 2011, aiming to deliver mid-range sites of between 50 and 150 units at a time, starting with sites in Old Street and Stockwell.