Here is a sad sight to walk past.
It is the very firmly closed office of Countrywide brand John D Wood in Clapham, south London.
Incidentally, it is next door to Marsh & Parsons, with James Pendleton a few doors away – both of which were seen to be busy at the time this photo was taken by EYE’s man on the street.
But he questioned why the branding had been kept on when surely it should have been the first thing to go.
Also, isn’t it muddling for consumers to give them two options to call? How would you know if Wandsworth or Battersea is the better bet?
Or maybe that’s what they call a retail option.
Still, the bins look clean!
We have a CW office near us that has closed and they have done the same. I think they feel as they are paying the lease still may as well use the window for advertising.
Bit silly really. Just advertising you are closing branches!
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The advert on the window is very apt as all the staff have been told ‘on yer bike mate’. When I started in this business in the 70’s JDW were a great brand predominately run by Ex Army types. To see their demise is bitter sweet, we compete, or rather used to compete with them, now they do not seem to get much of a look in and we have picked up some of the business so thank you for your kind support in what is a difficult market. Alison, if you can just get your local Hamptons office to go the same way us Estate Agents will give you retailers a Hamper for Christmas as a thank you, we will even get it from Tesco to help boost your non exec appointment.
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G-Pees office over the road from me seems to be opening two or three days a week with one solitary looking soul sitting there after the existing team didn’t relish a pay cut and an office move so walked. I suspect there are a number of other CW offices in the same boat and the 59 offices mentioned for closure not the full picture.
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What sort of business plan closes historically successful village offices, whilst keeping non profit making white elephant town offices open and loses all of their skilled estate agents?! I would suggest that it is not a businesses plan at all but purely a cost saving excersize to dupe shareholders? Great news for independent village agents. The shareholders should be more concerned with losing market share and the money wasted on generic market research studies and new plush Ivory Tower London offices!
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You really couldnt make it up.Hamptons have an office in Old Town ,Clapham another member of the CWD Group .This mystical synergy being created of gobbling and merging brands is a complete farce . The notice on the window is directing local traffic to other John D wood branches in different areas rather than to Hamptons The likley result is that Hamptons might gain a few extra instructions by default the majority being spread across the other agents in Clapham.Overall the net result is a loss of revenue to the Group
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We’ll see plenty more of this. Last year I worked for one of the Countrywide brands and we had two other CW brands on our patch….all competing for the same listings, undercutting each other on fees and even leaflet dropping/touting each others For Sale properties. So time and time again we had a situation where I’d gone out and quoted 1.5% and another brand had offered to do 1.25%. The fee all goes in the same bank account, so effectively you’ve got one manager deliberately loosing the company money just to get the listing for his brand above another brands manager who could have got a better fee. You couldn’t make it up. The monthly managers meetings were pretty interesting!
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