Alan Brown has announced his intention to retire as chief executive at CALA Homes after 32 years at the company.

Described by CALA’s Board as “instrumental” in driving the growth of the group, Mr Brown held a number of senior management and strategic roles in his time at the firm.

He trained as a chartered quantity surveyor and joined CALA in 1986 as development manager, progressing through the company before being appointed regional chairman for England in July 2006. Following the financial crisis of 2007/2008, Alan became group managing director before being appointed chief executive in September 2009.

Alan successfully led the group through the wider market downturn and oversaw the sale process from Lloyds Banking Group that secured the backing of L&G and Patron Capital in 2013 before delivering the acquisition and successful integration of Banner Homes in 2014. More recently, Alan led the acquisition of the group by L&G which was announced on March 13, 2018.

Since becoming chief executive in 2009, CALA has made significant progress under Alan’s leadership and, over the last decade, has been the UK’s fastest growing major home builder, delivering record profits in each of the last five years. CALA achieved 5 stars for customer service for the first time in 2008.

A search for a new chief executive has begun. Alan will remain in his current role until the end of April, when Graham Reid, group finance director, will assume the position of Interim CEO, in order to ensure an orderly handover and transition to his successor.

Kerrigan Procter, chief executive officer of Legal & General Capital, said: “CALA has benefited greatly from Alan’s leadership over the last nine years as Chief Executive and we shall miss him. The group is much stronger and more resilient as a result of his direction and the Board is confident of achieving continued and sustainable profitable growth well into future.

“On behalf of the Board and all of his colleagues, I would like to thank Alan for his outstanding contribution to the development of CALA and wish him every success in whatever he decides to do next.”

Alan Brown said: “This was not an easy decision. I’ve spent nearly my entire career at CALA, working with a talented group of people to build the great business that it is today.

“When I took over as CEO, the company had significant challenges and as a team we’ve worked extremely hard to overcome those challenges and build a large and very successful business that now enjoys the long-term support of one of the UK’s blue chip companies.

“I have enjoyed working at CALA immensely and I would like to thank all my colleagues for their fantastic support. The Group is in great shape with exciting growth opportunities and now is the right time for me to hand over the reins to a successor to lead CALA into the next stage of its development.

“I will now be taking a short time out from corporate life in order to think about the sorts of roles and activities I wish to pursue in the next stage of my career.”