Agency franchisees have been on the acquisition trail for independent firms.
Franchisees from Martin & Co and Northwood have separately boosted their businesses with the acquisition of local agents.
Felicia and Jon Sampson, the owners of Martin & Co’s Falmouth branch, have more than doubled the size of their business after taking on more than 350 properties from Rainbow Property in Cornwall, as well as the agent’s premises and eight members of staff.
Louise Griffiths, managing director of Martin & Co, said: “Martin & Co’s acquisition strategy really is going from strength to strength, so I would urge any independent businesses thinking of selling to speak to us as we have everything in place to complete on these deals quickly.”
Meanwhile Stuart Williams, owner of Northwood Dulwich, has completed on the purchase of independent agency Daisy Lets in Forest Hill.
Daisy Lets will keep its brand under the agreement.
Williams said: “There was a lot of interest in the acquisition of Daisy Lets and I am delighted to have been successful in acquiring what was a former competitor.
“Daisy Lets is a great fit with my existing business, because it is an independently run agency, which had been locally owned and built up from the ground to establish a very strong brand.
“This acquisition has added approximately 200 managed properties to my portfolio, with a similar number of tenant finds.
“We are retaining the existing team of staff at Daisy Lets and for now the name of this well-established business will remain unchanged and clients will not notice any changes in how their properties are managed.”
Phil Gee, managing director of Northwood, described Williams as one of the brand’s best operators.
He said: “There was a lot of interest in this highly sought-after acquisition and we had to move very quickly to outmanoeuvre the competition.”
Comments (5)
Congratulations. From the outside, both Belvoir (Northwood) and Martin & Co appear to be progressive franchises. In light of the TFB you can see why they’re pushing their franchisees to buy up independents. Just hope the franchisees in question aren’t being pushed into paying OTT prices that can’t be sustained on a net income basis. Always a big difference between the needs of the F’or and the F’ee with the former always pushing the latter to pump up turnover. With c.10% coming straight off the top line and tenant fees a thing of fond memory, the franchisees will need to make sure they don’t suffer too much attrition and haven’t over-borrowed. It’ll be your homes on the line, not the franchisors if the banks don’t get paid. Good luck, you’re in for a very stressful time over the next 12 months but I admire your bravery and hope that fortune favours the bold!
For every £1 made in lettings you have £3 of stress.
Hats off.
I wonder if any of these acquisitions include Ewemove branches which seem to be disappearing at an alarming rate?
Smile please
Truly alarming with hundreds of thousands of personal debts incurred already by failed franchisees at Ewemove suckered in by the woolly sheep story. Very sad indeed.
In their spiel to franchisees
“Industry statistics show that even a very poorly performing sales agent can comfortably sell one property per week and most established businesses sell at least two or three times that.”
Well Ewemove must be certainly skewing these industry stats where less than half of the franchisees are achieving annual sales of 52pa ,1 a week hence the high failure rate
“After your first year, you’ll be firmly established and have a steady flow of business.”
Try telling that to the poor franchisee in NEWMARKET who has just the 1 property for sale after 13 months or maybe BRACKNELL with just the 3 current instructions after 4 years. Maybe even a quiet word with recently culled sheep this calendar year alone . Poole who struggled on for 4 years, Cardiff, Stevenage ,Bolton North, Laindon Park,Bournville Altrincham Salford, Staines &Ashford who have all quietly slipped out of the pen this calendar year
In May 2018 they announced the Local Property Partners to make life financially easier.
One of the first to join was the LPP for Stroud, Gloucestershire.
“I’ve worked with estate agency for 13 years and was keen for a new challenge, so when the EweMove LPP offer came about, I didn’t hesitate,” he says. “EweMove is going places and I want to be a part of that.”
Already thrown in the towel in less than a year !
“To become successful as a EweMove franchisee, previous experience is not necessary. However, you need to have a “can do” attitude to thrive in the business. ”
Where are the RICS and NAEA in all this with a Gov’t health warning ? The whole of the industry is moving towards licencing qualifications and compliance yet Ewemove are still beating this drum which is polar opposite ,
Try telling no previous experiece is not necessary to those franchisees who have suffered lfe changing losses !!!
I am glad someone has done the digging. This is a news story in itself. Ros you need to run a story on this and let the current ‘Shepherd’ have their say.
How many more agents will walk away from a salaried position and take up what is frankly a financial burden?