George Wimpey Plc is one of the UK's largest housebuilders with corporate headquarters in London and UK construction headquarters in High Wycombe. It is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
The business was founded by a stonemason of that name in 1880 and was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1934.
Major non-housing projects have included the White City Stadium completed in 1908, the Team Valley Trading Estate completed in 1938, Heathrow Airport completed in 1946, the Furnas Dam in Brazil completed in 1963, the Llyn Brianne Dam in Wales completed in 1972, the HSBC Tower in Hong Kong completed in 1985 and the Channel Tunnel completed in 1994.
In the 1960s, George Wimpey designed two residential tower blocks in Glasgow: 51 Whitevale Street and 109 Bluevale Street. At 31 storeys/90m tall, they were the tallest buildings of their kind in the country upon completion. Throughout the 1960s, they were responsible for the design and construction of scores of tower blocks and blocks of flats throughout the UK, with their 1001/6 point block design being the one of the most popular, as six large roomy flats (4x2 bedroom, 2x1 bedroom) could be accomodated on each floor. Examples can be seen in high rise blocks on the Orchard Park estate in Hull, and at Woodthorpe and Wincester Court in Nottingham.
In 1996, George Wimpey entered into an asset swap with Tarmac whereby George Wimpey disposed of its construction and quarrying businesses in consideration for the acquisition of McLean Homes. In 2002, George Wimpey went on to acquire Laing Homes from John Laing, and McAlpine Homes from Alfred McAlpine. It also has operations in the United States trading under Morrison Homes.
In 2006 the company made a profit before tax of £310.2 million on turnover of £3,147.4 million. In March 2007, the company announced plans for a £6 billion nil-premium merger with Taylor Woodrow, the new entity is now called Taylor Wimpey. The merger will create the largest house building and construction company in the world.
Customer experience's[]
Several George Wimpey customers have developed websites about the experiences they have had, below is a list of some of them:
- aGeorgeWimpeyHome.co.uk - BewareOfWimpey.com - WEB ARCHIVE - GeorgeWimpeyHouses.co.uk