Doomed disruptor Legal & General Homes Modular Ltd has posted its seventh consecutive annual pre-tax loss, as it implements a plan to cease all operations within the next two years.
The business, which launched in 2016 with grand plans to “modernise the homebuilding industry”, said it would wind down by June 2025.
In accounts filed with Companies House on 3 November, the firm revealed a record £120.8m pre-tax deficit for the 2022 calendar year. It made a loss every year of its existence, leading to a cumulative total of £294.4m.
The accounts blamed its latest plunge into the red on increased delivery costs, additional overheads “incurred in support of business growth” and balance-sheet impairments related to its wind-down.
“The principal activity of the company going forwards is to close the factory, complete existing housing developments and wind down the business once all these activities are complete,” company directors stated.
Legal & General Homes Modular posted revenue of £39.9m for last year, up from just £12.2m for the prior period. But its costs increased by an even larger amount, from £15.2m to £47m.
The company had more liabilities than assets on its balance sheet at the end of 2022. Meanwhile, its staff costs soared by 42 per cent to £27.6m, with employee headcount up from 399 to 549 during the latest period.
Directors received almost £1m in salaries, benefits and other payments last year.
The company said earlier this year that it would “cease new modular production” at its factory in Selby, Yorkshire, after it was unable “to secure the necessary scale of pipeline to make the current model work”.
The offsite sector, once touted as the undeniable future of construction, has had a series of setbacks in recent times.
Urban Splash’s modular spin-off entered administration in May 2022, citing operating issues at its factory in Alfreton, while Caledonian Modular, a manufacturing specialist based in the Midlands, collapsed last March before being purchased by JRL a few weeks later.
