Metricon sharpens axe

EMBATTLED building giant Metricon will slash almost 10 per cent of its staff to counter the headwinds plaguing the construction sector.

Metricon acting chief executive Peter Langfelder confirmed that the nation’s leading home builder was in the process of an internal restructure of the business that would result in a reduction of its sales and marketing capability.

The company has started a consultation process with its 2500 staff that will lead to redundancies and a 9 per cent reduction in the size of its workforce.

That equates to about 225 jobs being cut.

The restructure comes as Metricon expects housing demand to settle back to pre-pandemic levels following a building boom.

Mr Langfelder said most of the roles affected would be at the front end of the business, predominantly sales and marketing positions.

“With the current headwinds buffeting the industry, specifically labour costs due to competition for skills, combined with present global material cost hikes and with our very strong existing pipeline of work, we need to carefully balance the pipeline of new builds with the construction side of the business,” he said.

“We are working to restructure our front end of the business given the current climate and the need to move forward efficiently. We are committed to looking after any of our people who may be impacted by these proposed changes, and they will continue to have ongoing access to the company’s support and mental health services.”

Mr Langfelder said Metricon was rebalancing the business’s focus over the next 18 months so it could build houses as quickly and efficiently as possible.

“We have previously said that our company has a proven history of success and remains profitable and viable, with the full support of our key stakeholders – this remains the case today,” he said.

Mr Langfelder said Metricon still expected to enter into contracts for 100 homes every week, on average, which aligned with pre-pandemic levels. “Our future construction pipeline shows no sign of slowing with more than 6000 site starts scheduled for 2023,” he said.

Metricon’s financial health has been under considerable scrutiny this year, with the nation’s largest home builder reaching a rescue deal with its lender, Commonwealth Bank, in May and its owners injecting $30m into the business.

Also in May, its co-founder and chief executive Mario Biasin died, from what the company later attributed to mental health issues. In July, Metricon also put 56 display homes worth about $65m up for sale across four states.

Mr Langfelder said the sales process was a regular part of the company’s business cycle.

In the past financial year several builders, including Probuild and Privium, have collapsed due to a number of issues, including rising construction costs. Global consultancy Turner & Townsend expects construction price escalation to peak next year.