More top-level departures from Countrywide have been confirmed.
They are James Poynor, Steve Hinshelwood and Peter Wallace.
All have had key roles with the company, which EYE understands is intending a broad restructure involving closures, mergers and re-brands.
Countrywide is due to report to the City tomorrow in the form of an interim announcement.
Hinshelwood was one of the original owners of Blundells in Sheffield, which Countrywide acquired almost exactly five years ago in the summer of 2011.
Latterly, he was ‘retail director’ for Yorkshire. He has already left Countrywide.
Poynor is currently national head of land and new homes for Countrywide, but will be leaving shortly.
Peter Wallace, according to his Linked In profile, was ‘national performance director – retail’, and like Hinshelwood he has already left.
He had previously been managing director of Countrywide’s estate agency offices across Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire.
Last night’s statement from Countrywide said of Poynor: “After six years of service at Countrywide, James will be leaving the business at the end of August to take up an opportunity in the new homes sector. We thank James for his significant contribution to the Group and wish him continued success in his future career.”
Of Hinshelwood, Countrywide said: “After five years of service with the company and achieving a huge amount of success within the industry, Steve Hinshelwood decided to take on a new challenge and left the company earlier this month. We thank Steve for his significant contribution and wish him continued success in his future career.”
Of Wallace, Countrywide said: “Peter left the business in June after a very long and successful tenure at Countrywide. We thank Peter for his significant contribution and wish him continued success in the future.”
Comments (18)
So the “old boys club” is now turning into a “younger girls club” as the ‘softer face of retail’ is now apparently the way forward, however based on Countrywide’ recent strategy implementation they shall lurch from this to something else, then something else when it hasn’t worked to the level of their huge expectations in a matter of months . The softer face however is only public facing, as the target driven (largely unrealistic – set by pen pushers who have no understanding of the market or the industry) will continue to make staff face daily pressure to create business and hit numbers at all costs, while also now having to ensure clients are keen to leave the company top drawer service / satisfaction ratings on their newly implemented “NPS” rating system. The issue at hand being is that these cut backs at senior level are also happening at lower level, with offices being run on ‘skeleton staff’ levels, with Countrywide expecting to raise their activity levels at the same time… less staff / more activity?! Water / wine. I also see that their hours are increasing …. I feel for the poor staff who are at the coal face, Impossible and thankless task. I went in one such Countrywide office yesterday and had to wait for several minutes as one sole member of staff sat there with a client in front of them, 2 – 3 phone calls were missed due to her being busy, and I stood waiting and waiting…. and waiting until I eventually left without being dealt with or acknowledged. Is this the premium service that Countrywides high fees are based on?
I am old school and a firm believer that Estate Agency is Estate Agency, and Senior staff should have experience in the role before they start barking their instructions and creating targets and strategy out of thin air… and not come from a medical, shoes, frozen food background. I look forward to witnessing their new “hybrid” marketing model putting an end to their un-deserved and eye-wateringly high “premium” fees for what is fast becoming a poorly run and abject service.
Yeah, me too. I joined in the mid eighties during the white sock brigade but it was common knowledge if you wanted to be an estate agent you should be trained via mann & co (aka cw) and back then, virtually all posts and promotions were earned from working within and we became a more professional unit but they seem to have reverted back in many areas and gone off at tangents in others, Harry Hill was one of our proactive leaders of the time but I’m sorry to say things have slowly gone down hill since then up until platts captaincy when things seem to have gone down hill very quickly and still sinking!
Lee Wainwright needs to get pushed up to board level quickly, whilst his style wasn’t my cup of tea he knows the property market inside and out. He was our regional for a couple of years and we quickly started making a lot more money as he was willing to invest if there was a decent enough return.
Alison Platt is a lovely lady, and has a great business head but has never sold a house in her life. I can’t really blame her for getting the job you have to blame those who brought her on board thinking it was a wise move. As we can see it clearly wasn’t.
I’ve got good friends from CW who are A class estate agents , but totally undervalued under paid for the work they do for them.
The retail principle was much talked about when the banks, insurance companies and building societies moved en masse to take over and modernize estate agency in the 80’s and 90’s. It failed, but the world has moved on and the internet has now enhanced lazy shopping/buying, so I reckon the retail principle is much closer to being the way in the near future. Look at the cross selling that happens with your energy company and all of the revenue that so many companies who cross sell at small margins…but offer many more products. Hence you look at CW and its so called enhanced marketing packages, Countrywide Property Lawyers, brokerage etc etc and now they are trialing the 2 tier marketing package online/High Street through Gascoigne Pees. I’d say the pieces of the jigsaw are in place. All the corporates are…despite the massive conflicts of interest doing this, so real agents need to wake up and smell the coffee. Purplebricks/CW and even Zoopla owning data capture and uSwitch are all going in 1 direction, so don’t be complacent about it! A correction in the market and a drop in volumes will scare the bean counters if it costs lots of money, but shareholder returns will push the big players and as all the property is all on portals now, the habits have been created.
Ha, orange it’s not difficult to be any better than any CW branch mate to be fair 😉
I worked for a CW branch for three years, was given free reign to do things my way – I took over in September 2012 and in that full year they made a 50k loss, first year we made 30k second year 65k then the third year 125k, but progressively what has been successful for me was slowly but surely taken away and we had to follow their way of doing things which was called “the ten ticks” and a supporting booklet of “what great agency looks like”, as if we were back at school.
The pressure and stress forced upon me, forced me to leave. Such things like Enhanced marketing packages were more important than getting a board, which I found absolutely baffling. Not to mention having to recommend Countrywide solicitors who are the biggest steaming pile of s$%t I’ve ever had to deal with.
The company is in pieces, which is a shame to a degree as there are some excellent people working for them who are massively under valued and can do so much better.
In an organisation the size of Countrywide – over 12,000 employees – there will be coming’s and going’s and I think you’ll find there are still plenty of peole who understand Estate Agency – There are also some new people trying to move the business forward and, as Eamonn says above, dont dismiss the retail notion quickly – someone who has never sold a house before will probably be looking at the process with fresh eyes and not a dinosaur approach of ‘because its the way its always been done’.
‘…dont dismiss the retail notion quickly – someone who has never sold a house before will probably be looking at the process with fresh eyes and not a dinosaur approach of ‘because its the way its always been done’.’
Thanks for that.
On a similar note, I’ve heard that instead of cleaning your teeth the age-old way it’s always been done – armed with toothbrush and sloppy toothpaste and all that archaic ‘two minutes twice a day’ malarkey, some of the new people in the dentistry world could suggest that ‘a fresh pair of eyes’ kinda way to remove plaque and tartar be to chew on a lit stick of dynamite with your fingers in your ears.
Hey presto! – Look Mum… no more plaque or tartar.
There you go – dentistry revolutionised.
I think you’ll find dentistry ‘revolutionised’ to an electric toothbrush – which as far as I know was a huge impovement: who said anything about using a stick of dynamite anyway?? And if trying something new/different is a stick of dynamite then lots of agents ( and loads of other businesses for that matter) are going to blow up soon, aren’t they? Please.
Way back when, I used to work for Countrywide under the HH regime. Back then, every single senior member of staff started their career as a negotiator and worked their way up. Knowing this, it inspired staff to work hard and perform because they could see the career progression available. I certainly did, and rose through the ranks.
Back then it was a really positive environment, charged with raw enthusiasm, ambition and competition. Its was the reason I am an estate agent today.
So sad to see a once great organisation sinking into the murky depths of corporate cruddiness.
RIP Hambo Countrywide.
On the Bright side, its great having CW branch in my town – makes me look even better!
The anticipated change of operation and or proposition from countrywide is interesting. Success or failure it will have far reaching consequences to the industry as a whole.
Dont dismiss the retail notion so quickly. It’s a concept consumers are very comfortable with.
Luckily, I deal with PEOPLE.
They’re very different to your ‘consumers’.
Alison Platt who’s now at senior level, has never sold a house in her life. She moved across from BUPA healthcare. Clearly Countrywide has no interest in actually having senior employees who have actually worked their way up the hierarchy and rather bring over people from private companies purely for their business brain.
Countrywide before long will crumble to pieces.
Which if it comes to pass, whilst very bad News for those employees affected, will not be widely mourned by many agents who deal with CW and the way some offices conduct their business on a daily basis.
I agree that not many agents like the corporate estate agents, but many off us learnt our trade there and many have good people working in their offices. The problems arise with the hierarchy and the pressure on the front line staff to get results at all costs and this will always be the same especially if it is run by bean counters and not proper estate agents
Yesterday it was Mr Knight leaving ‘to take on a new challenge’.
Today, among others, ‘Steve Hinshelwood decided to take on a new challenge’
Seems to me that if you are employed by CW at senior level and know anything about estate agency, the real challenge is to try and keep your job.
How long before this ‘cull’ extends to the lesser mortals on the front line in the branches?
Peter Wallis is a class act in agency and a loss to any business in the sector.
He has outperformed at a senior level in Countrywide for many years and I personally wish him well with whatever he decides to do next.
I don’t know the other two guys, but both obviously held senior positions, and the ongoing loss of very senior people from the agency is curious, even if/when Countrywide modify their mode of operation.
I used to work with Steve Hinshelwood at Blundells, and he will be a big loss to Countrywide. Not sure what’s happening within that company now, glad I got out when I did.
It looks like Countrywide are soon to have a reduction of 50% branch footprint. After working for them for over 10 Years I cannot believe what is happening. They have replaced experienced and successful estate agents & business leaders with so called “retail guru’s.”
Has any of the new management team ever sold a house – or ever sold anything to the point? I think experience in computers, mobile phones and health care will not replace the years of experience of the previous estate agents at countrywide.
I have also heard that many branch’s will be closed. I CAN GUARANTEE THAT TOWNS AND VILLAGES WILL NOT HAVE 2, 3 OR 4 BRANDS OF COUNTRYWIDE THIS TIME NEXT YEAR. MY GUESS IS A MIN OF 30 – 50% OF BRANCH’S WILL BE CLOSED AND A TOWN AND VILLAGE WILL HAVE A SUPER BRANCH!!!
Do the maths – if you are a branch manager,mortgage advisor or area manager get out now before the massive cull starts.
Alison Platt is assett stripping and one sole focus – reduce costs……………………………….
Would Alison LIKE TO COMMENT ?!