Spicerhaart has acquired a well-known independent in East Anglia, long-established Howards.
Established in 1926, Howards has branches in Great Yarmouth, Gorleston, Lowestoft, Norwich, Beccles, Long Stratton and Poringland.
The acquisition follows the recent purchases of the Brian Holt estate agency group in the west midlands and the 19 branches of butters john bee in Cheshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire and the west midlands.
Spicerhaart chief executive Paul Smith said: “We are delighted to welcome Howards to the Spicerhaart team, underlining our commitment to investing in bricks and mortar estate agencies, particular those with strong lettings books and property management divisions.
“Our purchase will enable Howards to offer more services to its customers and provide further career opportunities to its 50 staff.
“This is most certainly not the end of our acquisition push and we will be announcing further deals in the coming months. Whilst we have good organic growth in our core business, we are looking to extend our geographic footprint across the country as well as filling in locally where we have gaps.”
Howards managing director Chris Mitchell said: “We have always been a company that prides ourselves on providing straight forward, down-to-earth, advice and guidance to our customers, supported by excellent communications and innovative marketing activities.
“Spicerhaart shares exactly the same approach and we are extremely excited to become part of a larger organisation that can bring new investment to our business.”
The acquisition takes Spicerhaart to 200 branches with 2,000 staff nationwide. Its brands include haart, Darlows, Haybrook, Felicity J Lord, butters john bee, Brian Holt and Chewton Rose.
May have been around since 1926 but of late anyway, have had a number of different owners – not that long ago they had a shipping company as owner! Pre-2008 world meltdown they had many more offices than the ones mentioned in the article and in IMO never really recovered. Appear to have been drifting for some years now; last set of accounts shows a negative net worth of £1.9million so no great surprise that the current owners are selling up.
But got to feel sorry for the 50 staff – frying pans and fires. Expect we’ll see a number of them set up for themselves in back bedrooms or become a PB LPE…..
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I agree with you GeorgeHammond78.
Theyve been drifting for quite some time. Have closed many offices including a prime central London location. They let too many good staff walk out the door too.
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Howard’s staff- Grab your desk possessions and run as fast as you can and don’t look back.
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