Integrate to accumulate

Bryant Homes chief executive Denis Mac Daid is on the telephone tying up a land deal. He is not talking about a site for the housebuilder, but about a potential plot where he can build himself a home. The plot is close to Bryant's hq in Solihull, and the fact that this is the chosen location for such a dream home shows that Mac Daid is well and truly settling down at Bryant.

It is now four months since Mac Daid moved from running Taylor Woodrow Construction to take the helm at Bryant Homes. In that time the combined Bryant/Taywood Homes business has been reorganised into four divisions, Scotland, North, Central and Southern, with 12 regions. In Taylor Woodrow Group's recent interim results report group chief executive Keith Egerton said that the first phase of integration of the two businesses had gone well, and that the predicted £15m of savings from synergies are secured.

The company now has some 1200 staff, and lost around 150 in the merger, a small number compared to other major housebuilders who have gone through the merger process. "Taylor Woodrow was buying Bryant for its ability to improve the company, so they weren't going to carve it up," says Mac Daid. He has nothing but praise for Taylor Woodrow's acquisition. "Bryant are very good at what they do and the quality of people in Bryant is excellent," he says.

As part of the integration of the two businesses, a series of change agent teams were established, which tasked staff with looking at potential areas of improvement. "That was a good way of bringing the two companies together," says Mac Daid. At a business level, the two fit neatly. Bryant's skills lie in mainstream housebuilding while Taylor Woodrow has its own strengths in contracting and property development. Put the two together and you have a business that can tackle just about any type of site in the UK, whether brown or green, and develop it with standard housetypes, signature architect designed apartments, commercial space - or a mix of all three.

"When we get a mixed use site we can bring the talents of all the divisions together. It has been part of the Taylor Woodrow Group's strategy," says Mac Daid. "We could see that planning requirements, environmental demands and the needs of the community would produce more complicated projects and with that you need the ability to assess and manage the risk." The group is already involved in major schemes that demonstrate its ability to combine a variety of skills, like: the conversion of Lots Road power station in Chelsea, west London, to homes and commercial space; the creation of a new business park and 2500 new homes at Newcastle Great Park, just outside that city; the redevelopment of the Baltic Quay site, again in Newcastle; and the £83m Macintosh Mills regeneration project with Ask Property Developments in Manchester.

Taylor Woodrow Capital Developments is best known in the residential sector for the Montevetro building in Battersea, designed by Richard Rogers Partnership. Lots Road is being masterplanned by another signature architect, Terry Farrell, and Mac Daid says that signature architects have a definite place on the residential team. "There are times when you have got to use signature architects. If you don't, you won't have that extra cachet." But at the same time the standard housetype range remains a strong part of the Bryant portfolio and is being refreshed.

When asked about his objectives for the next 12 months Mac Daid focuses not on the high profile schemes, but on the recurring problems of UK housebuilding - satisfying an increasingly demanding customer, making sites as safe as possible, and improving build quality. "We want to reduce snagging and defects to a minimum. We're introducing a strategy of zero tolerance," he says.

"Building is a factory process which we should do well. One of the most important things in buying a home is having a move in day with certainty of delivery." Mac Daid has seen zero defects housing produced by Taylor Woodrow's US operations so he knows it is achievable. And as a former project manager he understands what has to be done in order for the workforce from site level up to deliver. "The majority of people want to do a good job," he says. "We have to ensure that they have the means to do it."