The estate agency business Roberts & Co has been bought as a going concern out of administration.
The buyer is Pinkmove, a highly successful local competitor in Newport, South Wales, which has recently acquired two other, unrelated, agency businesses as it seeks to expand.
Pinkmove, owned and run by Paul Cleverly, moved quickly to close the deal, registering a company called Roberts Estate Agents Wales on February 20.
Administration started on February 10, meaning that the entire deal has been put together and the purchase completed within days.
The name ‘Roberts’ will continue to be above the door of the ten offices – one of which is a franchise.
Cleverly said he had paid market price for the business. He told EYE: “We will consolidate the branches down to five and there will be some redundancies, but we will try to preserve as many jobs as possible.
“It is a business with a good name, being one or two in the areas where it operates, and there was a lot of interest in the sale. However, it was losing a lot of money – at the rate of £25,000 a month – and needs attention.”
The Roberts & Co business, founded by well known estate agency figure Alan Darlow MBE, had a winding up petition brought against it by HMRC, but had apparently already called in administrators.
The business was established in 2002 and currently employs some 60 staff.
Very nice to start the day with a good news story
Good luck
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Thats an interesting development and I genuinely didnt see that coming due to the respective sizes of Pinkmove to Roberts.
As stated Pinkmove have already acquired Cardiff Homes (3 branch independent Cardiff) and Fussells (single branch independent Caerphilly) in recent years. The Fussells purchase only happening around Christmas 2019….
They now have several areas where there are both Roberts and their other brand offices in the same location ….Caerphilly / Cardiff (Rumney) / Newport City Centre come to mind. Probably the reason for only the 5 offices being kept on…
Pinkmove are already doing fees from £1299 inc vat from their existing offices with Floorplans and accompanied viewings included.
So it will be interesting to see how they handle Roberts….as their cost base will be significantly different.
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That’s now a mega business in Newport. Huge news. Good luck to all involved
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That’s some big growth quickly for Pinkmove – hope all works out, good luck
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