Cala Group today announces the 100% acquisition of Taylor Lane Timber Frame Ltd., one of the UK’s leading timber frame construction specialists.
The investment will help drive Cala’s progress towards their sustainability targets and support delivery of the group’s ambitious growth plans in the South of England.
Led by an experienced existing management team, Taylor Lane will continue to pursue the vision of their original founders, to deliver high quality products and excellent customer service to scale.
Cala’s carbon reduction strategy sets out their transition to timber frame across all the homes they build in England, where possible. The investment in Taylor Lane will help Cala to increase the use of timber frame in England to c.1,500 new homes per annum, over the next five years.
In Scotland, Cala has been using timber frame construction for over 40 years, and around 80% of Cala’s homes there are built using this method.
With factories in Hereford and Wales, Taylor Lane will supply Cala’s five English businesses in the Cotswolds and South of England, while continuing to service existing customers and grow their presence in the wider market.
The investment illustrates Cala’s confidence in Taylor Lane’s potential and provides a strong platform for continued growth, while ensuring both consistency and stability for Taylor Lane’s employees, customers and operations.
Kevin Whitaker, CEO at Cala Group, said: “Today’s announcement is a hugely positive step forward for both Taylor Lane and Cala. Taylor Lane is a successful business with an experienced management team and talented workforce, who share Cala’s passion for quality and service. We look forward to working with the Taylor Lane team, supporting them as they continue to develop and grow their business to achieve the ambition of their original founders to deliver to scale.
“For Cala, this also demonstrates our clear commitment to delivering our climate targets. The investment in Taylor Lane sets out our path to transitioning to timber frame across our English developments, a key element of our sustainability strategy.
“The positive arguments for timber frame construction have never been more compelling. Generating up to 20% less embodied carbon than a typical masonry build, and offering the benefits of speed and efficiency of construction and superior factory-built quality, the advantages of using timber strongly support our decision to invest in timber frame and grow our use in the future.”
Jonathan Lane, Managing Director at Taylor Lane, said: “This marks the start of an exciting new chapter for Taylor Lane and is a fantastic endorsement of our potential from a highly-respected UK homebuilder. We are delighted to being moving forward with Cala as our new owners.
“Over the past 40 years we have successfully grown Taylor Lane to a £30m turnover business delivering around 2,000 timber frame units per year, to a wide variety of sectors. This is testament to the vision of our co-founders, Colin Taylor and Barrie Lane, and the hard work and commitment of our employees alongside the quality of our product and our approach to customer service. We are all incredibly proud of Taylor Lane’s achievements to date.
“Looking ahead, the management team and I feel extremely positive about our prospects. We have robust growth plans in place, a loyal customer base and a talented team. We also have the security of Cala’s ownership and a pipeline of additional future growth to come from their transition to timber frame construction in England.”
Cala progresses towards carbon reduction targets
Cala is making positive progress towards achieving its targets of building homes for its customers that are operationally net zero carbon enabled from 2030 and reaching net-zero total greenhouse gas emissions by 2045.
Cala’s Carbon reduction data for the year ending 31st December 2022 shows absolute operational carbon emissions of 9,175t CO2e, down 8% against 2021. This reduction was delivered despite a 4% increase in the number of new homes completed in the year.
The homebuilder also confirmed their Science Based Target (SBT), of achieving a 42 per cent absolute reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030, has been formally ratified. Being owned by Legal and General, Cala’s SBT falls under the Legal and General target. In 2022, Cala made strong headway, with an absolute reduction of 16 per cent in scopes 1 and 2 (against a 2021 baseline).
