Countrywide may be in the midst of closing branches but it had seemed that one recent acquisition, Greene & Co, did not get the memo.
The London agents announced the opening of two new locations at Willesden Green and Harringay Green Lanes, describing it as boosting Greene & Co’s presence in north London and the City to nine offices.
The move was initially described in a statement as “an indication of Greene & Co’s confidence in and commitment to the London property market, with both branches bringing a sales and lettings service to the local areas”.
However, after questioning from EYE, it has now been clarified that the two offices are not new openings but in fact re-brands from Bairstow Eves.
A Countrywide spokesperson told us late yesterday afternoon: “We rebranded two branches in Willesden Green and Harringay Green Lanes from Bairstow Eves to Greene & Co and expanded the offering to include both sales and lettings for our customers.
“The launch of these two new rebranded branches offers exceptional service levels and localised knowledge of the north London property market and significantly strengthens our already established branch network for our valued customers.”
The Willesden Green branch will be headed up by Steven Andrea as sales manager and Hussein Bastan-Hagh as lettings manager, while at Harringay Green Lanes, Naveed Kazi will oversee sales, supported by Sofia Williams in lettings.
We had questioned the announcement of two more office openings for Greene & Co, given that Countrywide is in the process of closing at least 62 branches nationally and merging brands in London.
EYE first asked Greene & Co how its apparent two new branches fit with Countrywide’s strategy of closures, and a Greene & Co spokesperson said: “Increasing our presence in key locations within the capital is key to the growth strategy of our business.
“The opening of these two new branches significantly strengthens our already established branch network in north London, ensuring that we can offer a range of services not only to buyers moving into the area, but also those looking to move further afield to a location which we also cover.”
The spokesperson declined to address whether there would be more openings and directed us to Countrywide.
Explaining its overall strategy, a separate statement from Countrywide said: “Our customers are at the heart of our ‘Building our Future’ strategy.
“As part of this strategy, we regularly review our operating model to identify ways for our people to deliver a better service and drive long-term value by aligning our portfolio to growth.
“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.”
Countrywide then confirmed that Greene & Co’s two new offices are re-brands.
Countrywide acquired Greene & Co in May of last year as reported by EYE and Countrywide went on to make several more acquisitions before halting that programme earlier this year, while shortly afterwards it became known that there are a number of office closures and mergers.
- Martin Coombes, Countrywide’s regional director for Hampshire, Surrey and West London, has left the company to join Connells as area director for Bournemouth and Dorset. Coombes had been with Countrywide since 1993. At Connells, he has taken up the role of area director for Bournemouth and Dorset.
Comments (10)
Mann & Co co of course being one of the first agents in the 80s to sell out to Black Horse .This set in train the whole merry go round In turn LLoyds Bank sold it to Bradford & Bingley who sold to Countyrywide which is still happening today – growth and decay Its a total anithesis to the maxim “An agent is as good as their next deal ” when they are being paid out on the strength of the last one
CW: working on ‘Building our Future’ strategy.
Actions include knocking down (at least) 62 offices and getting rid of a bunch of senior figures, mainly the ones who have knowledge of estate agency.
Maybe CW don’t realise that what they’re doing (demolishing) is literally the opposite of the name of their strategy.
Good luck to Martin Coombes, a great guy and I had the pleasure of working with him twice in my career, another loss for CW in the experience department
Agree with eltell above. Why is it that business and politicians sem to think a straight forward yes or no is not the correct answer? The truth always is best and the simplest and you can remember it .
You could imagine the hypothetical situation when the spokesman (now transferred to front line activity due to his incredible success at smoke signals ) for these large conglomerates, when asked by a prospective purchaser if the offer he has made at the asking price has been accepted saying well on the one hand yes but due to our expansion to new, sorry rebranded offices, the computers are down, and until the bean counter is back we shall have to see. Please call back or look at our website where all the properties are!!
Countrywide senior management always remind me of politicians. Never a straight answer, lots of buzzwords and cliché statements about strategy and direction and a general air of cluelessness.
Incidentally, I had a young lad from a CW in last week to borrow a key. Said he was from “the Mann shop up the road” Enough said.
lots of good estate agents started at Mann’s and went on to work at proper estate agents 😉
so give the young lad a chance
I started at Mann & Co in the 80’s…and I’m now a proper estate agent! The point I was making was that he referred to it as a shop!
Typical Countrywide statement. From the top down they always find it impossible to play with a straight bat.
So really this article could be headed “Countrywide redecorate two branches”
Oh Alison, why don’t you offer a reply instead of just hitting the dislike button!?