Crest Nicholson has announced that its boss, Peter Truscott, is to retire with a replacement arriving from Persimmon later this year.

The housebuilder appointed Persimmon’s CEO, Martyn Clark, as its new chief executive as the company saw profit slump more than two thirds in its latest set of annual results, released yesterday.

The housebuilder said Clark, who has spent nine years at Persimmon, will join the firm later in the year, replacing Truscott, who is retiring after five years in the role.

The move comes as the Surrey-based company posted a pre-tax profit of £41.4m in the year to October 2023, down 70% from a £138m profit the year before on turnover 28% lower at £658m.

Crest Nicholson said the fall in profit was due to a combination of “challenging trading conditions” and unexpected extra costs, including bills linked to a Surrey-based development site that contributed to its second profit downgrade in November.

The company told investors last week that surging costs linked to the Brightwells Yard regeneration scheme in Farnham, as well as other ongoing projects, would slash its profits.

The firm added that it will earmark £13m for potential legal costs linked to a fire at one of its low-rise apartment schemes in 2021.

Truscott, who previously head of Galliford Try, said that due to supply chain issues in late 2022, Crest Nicholson “commenced the new financial year with a lower build position than originally planned” but added that build activity had been “normalised” by the year end.

He added: “The combination of challenging trading conditions and incremental cost movements associated with Farnham and other legacy low-margin sites have led to a disappointing set of results in FY23.

“We have proactively streamlined the business to align with the challenging trading environment and have taken decisive measures to address operational challenges associated with Farnham and other legacy sites, implementing strategies to control costs and ensure a more precise and feasible path towards projects completion.”

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