Countrywide has declined to comment on reports that it has sent At Risk notifications to branches warning of possible closures.
Yesterday, a spokesperson said: “It would be inappropriate to comment further on this during the period of consultation. For clarity, the statement issued is our response to your enquiry.”
The firm had earlier denied a number of other suggestions we put to it.
Instead, it repeated earlier statements in which Sam Tyer, managing director of retail at Countrywide, said: “It is Countrywide’s intention to align its business in a way that will best service its much valued customers. Within the retail arm of our business, we are proposing some changes to our branch footprint, in consultation with our People, as we work to align our portfolio to growth.
“These proposals form part of the ‘Building our Future’ strategy, focused on having the right people in the right places to meet our customers’ needs, bringing our Estate agency and Lettings businesses together and driving the business forward.
“These changes will enable us to deliver a better, more personalised customer experience delivered by our great people.”
It also repeated a statement from Graham Bell, managing director of London at Countrywide, in which he said that only a few branches were involved in changes.
He said: “Within London, we are making some organisational changes across a small number of branches which will involve strategic branch consolidations, rebrands and closures.
“These changes enable us to have the right brand in the right location to service customers across all price points.
“Our aim is to create bigger, better and busier branches that are open for longer with a wider range of services for our customers, and an improved working environment for our people.”
Comments (3)
Having first hand knowledge of the best HR practices at Countrywide this will drag on and the misery will be compounded by misery.
I love the statement about aligning sales and lettings. These are the idiots that all but destroyed the relationship between sales and lettings in at least one of their businesses. They should look at the business model of some of the excellent independent agents who are flourishing in the same locations and markets. Sadly, they buy the successful independents and then ruin them.
They throw out all the values, culture and ethos that made them good in the first place. Just look at the thriving small agents who do a fabulous job and have the flexibility to address market conditions and adapt swiftly.
Gone are the seasoned estate agents who have lived through difficult markets and can read the runes. They are the guys who weathered the good and bad periods and have much to teach the MBA carrying retail management team.
Many of the poor s*ds on the receiving end of this will probably now have to go through the farce that is the formal redundancy process – where the outcome is a foregone conclusion but the bosses have to kid the staff that nothing is decided yet, they are all ‘in the pot’, and every effort is being made to treat everyone fairly etc etc etc. Unless of course they have been employed for less than two years in which case they are spared the farce and are simply ‘let go’. A blessing in disguise.
PIE – corrct consultation process underway – I’m reliably informed.