Estate agency shuts two offices as it says ‘hub’ format works better

An estate agency has shut half of its four offices and lost just under 20% of staff.

Thorgills, in west London, now has two offices, which it describes as “super branches”, with a larger sales force operating across wider areas.

Nine people have been let go as part of the restructure, including two redundancies.

Thorgills was established in 2008 and rapidly expanded to a team of 60 across four branches, picking up 29 industry awards in the last 11 years.

Thorgills founder and managing director Ben Madden said: “In recent years I think we lost sight of our values and goals, forgetting what we regard as true success.

“Thorgills was established to create an environment that truly cared about its team, helping everyone achieve personal success and develop in line with the business, in turn achieving fantastic results for our clients.

“More recently, we became focused on growing our branch footprint, but in hindsight this was for the wrong reasons.

“Naturally the growth stretched our capabilities, operating with less experience in each location, which in turn made it more difficult to maintain the desired environment in each branch.

“Leadership is about motivating, inspiring, coaching and caring; to achieve this I believe we need our best leaders to be present, and thankfully they now are.

“The proof is in the pudding: we’re three weeks into the launch of our new format and we are already in our best position of 2019 judging by our current figures.

“Our team are happier and our clients are once again receiving the fantastic service levels that built this business.”

He added: “The super-branch format restores Thorgills to its origins as the first ‘hub agency’ in the industry that it first created many years ago, before the concept became so popular.

“The business continues to operate as a high street agency, remaining visible (and visitable!) to residents and clients alike, delivering personal, local and knowledgeable service.”

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15 Comments

  1. htsnom79

    Good luck guys, but why on earth would you have a head count of 60 across four branches?

    20 maybe low 20s at a push, or 1 LPE using a ” disruptive ” model lol.

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  2. Property Poke In The Eye

    Just say we cant afford to keep all branches open why this hub and super branch business.

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  3. Property Pundit

    Translation: The market is tough as bu$$ery, we expanded too quick and now we’ve got to downsize and cut jobs but, hey, we’ve got some great buzz phrases we’ll now use to gloss over our mistakes.

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    1. Lil Bandit

      No one respects your opinion mate. They are trying something new and you are just being a dinosaur as per usual.

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      1. Property Pundit

        Glad you’re thinking of the nine people that have lost their jobs. Oh and if you kept up with things on here, you’d be aware I’m not an agent. Now, have another coffee, you’re not at 100% yet.

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        1. Lil Bandit

          Grow up, this is business not communism. Jobs come and go i’m sure good people will find work elsewhere. If you can find employment that must be encouraging for those out of work.

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          1. Property Pundit

            My being self-employed doesn’t quite fit your narrative or virtue-signalling, does it? #epicfail

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            1. Lil Bandit

              From my experience self-employed normally means no one else would employ you!

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    2. spin2009

      And what about the 51 jobs they preserved?

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      1. Property Poke In The Eye

        Not for long, I know how that business operates and will not survive too long, now that they cant charge the high tenant admin fees.

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  4. Woodentop

    A clear case of over expansion, empire building. Having to downsize to stay afloat is the real story? “Super Branch” err no, that’s just an office that you should have stuck to and spin to save face with your closures.

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  5. cyberduck46

    Why not just 1 super-duper branch?

     

     

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    1. Woodentop

      If only you knew.

      Cyberduck46: 16.01hrs 14th May 2019
      “The fact I don’t have any experience of being an Estate Agent is irrelevant”
       

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  6. HD23

    Having had the dis-pleasure of having to deal with this company on a few occasions, can’t say i’m very surprised, their service is awful

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    1. Property Poke In The Eye

      Very true, their company accounts won’t even sustain the super duper Branch.
      There was another West London Agent who closed 4 branches and they also sitting in 1 super duper serviced office with only half of the stock they previously had.

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