Mr. Weiss: Beazer Homes is one of the top 10 homebuilders in the United States, building throughout the Southeast, Southwest, and up through the Mid-Atlantic. So we have grown significantly over the past five years. Our roots were originally of a UK company. Beazer Plc was one of the largest homebuilders in the UK, started by Brian Beazer in the 1960s and taken public there. They grew to be one of the largest homebuilders in the UK and expanded into the US in 1985. They acquired a company here in Atlanta, which is why we're based in Atlanta. They grew through acquisitions throughout the 1980s to be a large regional homebuilder. Our parent company was acquired by another British company in 1991. Under them we expanded to the West Coast, combining with Watt Housing, a big West Coast company. We went public in 1994, and have grown quite dramatically on our own since then. We're currently doing about 9,000 homes a year and have revenues of about 1.7 billion.
TWST: What specifically did the company do that might have been
different from some other companies in order to create that growth?
Mr. Weiss: Our real focus is on the first time homebuyer and the first
move-up. We believe that is an area where there's a phenomenal amount of
pent up demand and need for housing on the affordable side. So what
we've done to help grow there is expand our product offerings and expand
our geography, both through acquisition and gaining market share from
other builders. It has been through a lot of expansion, both
geographically and in product offerings, and then attempting to operate
more efficiently than most builders. Not so much more efficiently than
our other top 10 competitors who we certainly try to operate as
efficiently or more efficiently than, but much more efficiently than the
bulk of the industry who unfortunately are the smaller homebuilders.
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