Metricon has recorded a near-$76m turnaround just two years after it received a multimillion-dollar lifeline from its owners.
Australia’s largest home builder reported $42m in earnings in the 2024 financial year, a massive jump after being $33m in the hole in the financial year prior.
Over the past year, the business has seen significant increase in demand from customers looking to build with them, with a rise in deposits nationally from 3,303 in FY23 to 5,279 in FY24.
And the amount of homes the company completed increased by more than a third in the same time frame, rising from 2069 to 3239 across metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria.
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This is a significant change of direction from mid-2022 when the company received a $30m injection from its owners as the construction industry faced skyrocketing materials and trades costs as well as record housing construction.
Metricon chief executive Brad Duggan said after a “vortex” of hits to the industry, the company took the time to work its way through those issues to get back to “normality”.
Mr Duggan said when there was a considerable increase in costs in a short period of time, it was important Metricon delivered those homes for customers on fixed-price contracts.
“It really is just the grind of our team to deliver those and get through to the new workbook of activity that was reflective of those cost increases,” he said.
He added that Victoria’s home building market was a bit flatter relative to Queensland and South Australia which had state governments that were doing more to assist first-home buyers to enter the market.
Mr Duggan noted that there was a lot of negative talk about the residential construction sector at the moment and a very large housing problem that needed to be solved.
“Metricon is ready to assist in trying to change the narrative,” he said.
“We need to give our customers reasons to feel confident, to take the lead, to build a new homes.
“We’re focusing on is trying to rebuild trust and confidence in the industry.”
Metricon managed to stay afloat when the industry faced headwinds unlike Porter Davis, Clough Group, ProBuild, ConDev and many other companies in the sector.
The home builder ended up taking on some of Porter Davis’ contracts when that business collapsed, and has since handed over about half of those builds to those customers.
In August 2022, Metricon restructured its business, sacking about 225 staff or 9 per cent of its workforce.
The builder also increased contract prices by 10 per cent for clients who’s contracts had expired before their build had commenced.
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