New ceo for Crest Nicholson

Patrick Bergin is to take over from Steve Stone as chief executive of Crest Nicholson in March. Bergin, presently Crest's chief operations officer, will take over at the company's AGM on March 22 with Stone becoming executive chairman for 12 months and non-executive chairman in 2019. Current chairman William Rucker will leave the board while Leslie Van de Walle becomes deputy chairman with immediate effect. Louise Hardy joins the board as non-executive director.

The changes come as Crest announced its final results for the year ending October 31 2017. The firm saw sales increase 7% to £1.066 billion and delivered 2,935 new homes in the year – 2.3% more than last year’s 2,870. Pre-tax profit is up 6% to £207.0 million and operating margin reached 20.3% (20.4%). Forward sales at mid-January stood at £575.7 million, 8% ahead of last year.

Commenting on the results, Stone said: "We have had another year of growth, with increases in sales and the number of new homes built. Our new business divisions are continuing to grow, driving increases in sales outlets and underpinning our ambitious sales target of £1.4 billion in 2019.

“The new build housing market continues to be robust, sustained by …