North East housebuilder secures bank backing for growth
North East housebuilder Cussins is set to more than double its turnover by 2023 after securing a new £10m funding package from banking partner Lloyds Bank.
The family-run firm, headquartered in Alnwick, constructs houses and apartments across the North East, specialising in mid-market three, four and five-bedroom detached properties.
The support package – an increase of £3m on a previous facility between Lloyds Bank and Cussins – will help the housebuilder execute its ongoing growth strategy, enabling it to acquire new, larger, tracts of land for future development and meet construction costs.
In the last two years, Cussins has twice featured in the Top 10 of The Journal’s Fastest 50 league table of growth companies.
The revised funding package from Lloyds Bank, which comprises a revolving credit facility and an overdraft, will facilitate acceleration of this upward trend with turnover projected to rise to £70m by 2023.
Over the next three years, Cussins aims to treble its number of housing plots to around 1,000 units, increasing its annual housing output from the current level of over 100 units per year to around 300.
Peter Cussins, executive chairman at Cussins, said: “These past few years have very much been a growth story for our business, and this backing will mean we can go further still.
“We have had a long-standing relationship with Lloyds Bank, and their support has been key to achieving our past growth ambitions. It has backed us once again and increased the size of the facility to ensure that we have what we need to help us work towards our targets.
“The company has exciting plans which will see us continue to expand production across the region. We have secured some excellent new schemes which will offer a wide range of options for our purchasers. A key focus for us is in maintaining the design and build quality our customers expect.”
Hannah Douglass, relationship director at Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking, said: “Cussins is a business that has big ambitions for the future.
“With this funding in place it will have the liquidity it needs to secure and develop prime sites to meet its growth targets, ultimately bolstering its revenue, supporting jobs in its business and its supply chain and increasing the availability of high-quality housing here in the North East.
“Supporting housebuilders like Cussins is a key part of our commitment to helping Britain prosper.
“As well as providing firms with funding packages like this, we’ve also partnered with Homes England to back the Housing Growth Partnership, which provides equity to small and medium-sized housebuilders on a site-specific basis, helping them grow their businesses and enabling more new homes to be built.”