Countrywide’s board is discussing the future of under-pressure chief executive Alison Platt, after the group’s shares slid to a record low following a profits warning last week.
Sky News quoted “City sources” who suggested that an announcement on Platt’s departure was possible in the next few days, although it has not yet been finalised.
One source told the broadcaster: “I’d be surprised if there’s been nothing official by the time of the results [on March 8].”
Countrywide’s shares closed at 103p yesterday, down nearly 3.6%.
It makes a precipitous fall in the value of the business, in which shares closed trading on Wednesday last week at just over 135p.
Countrywide then issued a dramatic — and unscheduled — trading update on Thursday in which it warned that it is expecting group EBITDA for 2017 to be 22% down on the previous year.
It said total group income is expected to be £672m, down 8.8% on 2016’s total of £737m.
Total income in the sales and lettings business for the full year is expected to be circa £360m, down 14% on 2016, which Countrywide said reflected a disappointing fourth quarter performance.
Since then, all eyes have been on Platt, who has been in charge of Countrywide since 2014 and is a former Bupa and British Airways executive.
Comments (55)
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Income is up but profit down.
Income = market share
profit = costs
it should be an easy fix for an accountant but you can see why the share price is low its because dividends won’t be paid.
Nothing to do with the words retail just to do with costs.
Perhaps they should get rid of the deadwood or wasn’t that the cause of all this in the first place!
They got rid of the profit makers fact.
All of those mds on the south coast made money All of them, and had been there making money in its best year ever. and indeed well before that for many years. On the south coast they got rid of 3 mds and gave it to a new guy who had managed at most 11 branches in that colosus Halifax. He now had over 100????
The only idiot who would have made such a foolish move was one of the previous incumbents…hey ho
Cut costs, don’t cut costs you seem confused!
If the gearing is correct then costs will be a fixed proportion of the income.
The gearing is incorrect currently.
No confusion just probably something you didnt learn whilst pushing leaflets through letterboxs.
you appear to have gone quiet on the mackenzie appointment, was that you who appointed him.
Are you the guy who was loud on the syndicate table and one of the board Directors said quietly to me what a ***, are you from the west country perchance
I have nothing to say on the Mackenzie appointment you speak of as I don’t know the circumstances around it. I’m not from the West Country though I have had the odd holiday there.
What I do know is that you can’t run an estate agency business without estate agents in at least some of the important jobs rather than none of them.
Everyone who works inside Countrywide never for one minute believed the ‘Retail’ model would work…………….what do we know though……we only deal directly with the public buying and selling their homes. The senior management earning huge sums of money said they knew better……..hmmmmmmmm………I think we can say with certainty the gamble didn’t work. Time to go back to being an Estate Agent. Despite some of the comments left on here there are plenty of good staff left, so with the right leadership the cause is by no means lost !
Compo: You certainly have a very good grasp of what the problem has been at CWD. That is a very good start in rescuing the organisation.
Some questions and suggestions for the board/shareholders when Alison is finally given her no doubt substantial severance package and leaves this sinking ship.
Retail…really? Will you all please ****** off back to the high street, there you can implement the ideals associated with retail i.e. the activity of buying and selling goods to the public! Do you understand that cliché’s and soundbites are completely meaningless if not backed up with anything that is remotely real and tangible? Get people in at the top who understand the business as a whole (CW are company that through Estate Agency services cross sell other Estate Agency related services on a massive scale, how we communicate and how this is done will always evolve as indeed will some of the services we provide, however fundamentally this is the real essence of CW) and how it is changing, who can also talk in plain English to get the strategy across, ideally these people have some experience in the industry and are actually believable. Get rid of the majority of senior management from regional up, they are a bunch of gutless two faced hypocrites who have in the main climbed the corporate ladder by being nothing but obedient fools, nodding their head to Alison and her cohort’s whilst slagging them and their strategies’ off to their subordinates, nobody trusts anybody anymore, they have been far too busy protecting their own careers then to actually speak out and do the job they have been paid a large amount of money to carry out. Don’t even get me started on the online offering! Dreamt up by another buffoon who has never sold a house, I have not once come across one single other member of staff in the entire group who though anything other then what a croc of rubbish! All the senior team spent years telling staff that PB will never last and the model can’t succeed blah blah blah, and then forced us to implement the same cheap a**e model, cluelessness does not come close to accurately describing the incompetence of the current management of this once great company.
The entire board must be culpable in this fiasco, you have some work cut out for you in trying to restore the staffs somewhat diminished faith in you, well what remains of the staff that is, anyone decent has left or been pushed out….
Compo200945
You sound so passionate that I think you need to be on our steering committee for Wardy and AgentV’s eleven point turnaround action plan. Are you up for it?
Any halfwit knows that when you walk in the front door you want the best price and the best fee. i cant believe anyone on the board ever said take it on for peanuts and kill the business. The problem is idiots fighting internally over the word retail instead of just doing the simple job of generating valuations and instructions. I bet Alison never said dont take it on you fool,,,,
Income is up year on year sadly so are the costs
hodge to be fair its not just the word retail its the attitude and culture at the company. Its a high preassure sales culture which is figure focused whilst trying to be a service industry (with little resourses).
They have cut costs all over the place, branch staff are doing the job 3 would a few years ago. Sometimes you cannot squeeze more blood out of a stone.
They got rid of area managers, local directors and M.D’s of subsideries with years of experiance and replaced them with individuals with no idea how estate agency works. Its not just board level they wiped out experiance its almost the entire company.
A good friend of mine ran an incredibly profitable office, average fee 12k – He went to a roll out meeting of the £995 deal and questioned the presenter if they had to offer it as standard on every property as he would need to list 12 to cover the cost of 1 sucessful sale.
The presenter belittled him in front of an entire room, and said “Do you not understand? EVERY property is to be offered this”.
It goes to show how bad the situation is there. Also the ipads they have, limted characters in advertising a property, the national admin centers ….. I could go on but pretty much any department you look at in CW is F***ed. Its not just retail wording.
That story about the 12k fee is just unbelievable stupidity on the presenter’s part!!!
Well put smile, that story rings true with about a dozen similar ones I have heard from former colleagues that are still there and ones that saw it as an embarrassment and have now left.
I have a 5 point action plan that I believe would turn countrywide around. Happy to discuss it with anyone likely to be taking over.
That’s one less than my 6 point action plan. Do I get the job?
Its not quantity that counts, but quality 😉
What don’t we join forces and make it a JV 11 point plan
Just put it forward on the newsflash!
I have a one point plan ! ……Appoint an Estate Agent as CEO , with real coal face experience ! Probably too late .
Way too late……………..the best CEO’s out there could not unravel this monstrosity in time. Countrywide needs to be stripped bare and it will be. The opportunity will be there to acquire and give new life to some once very strong independent High Street brands. Countrywide will become the Lehmans of British Estate Agency.
Any ideas on who has the strength to replace her?
Ian Wilson from TPFG?
Dorian Gonsalves at Belvoir?
True, both are franchisors but both Groups have been well-led and have CEOs who want to grow grow grow.
Any other names on the shortlist?
You will see an ex-countrywide employee back at the head of the firm.
Will not be Harry Hill, Doubt Bob Scarff
My money is on Ben Taylor, maybe a bit early for him but someone of his standing.
Pah, why would they be interested at a paltry 10k a week salary, all the dumb money for personal enrichment is to be made from investors
Is that you posting above Ian?
I shall await the Board’s call!
And who are you ?
If you have to ask, you are too young.
If he has to ask then the original poster is irrelevant 😉
Maybe the next chief executive should be an agent so they understand the business!!
The group still has turnover of £672,000,000. That is still ten times more than the largest Call Centre Lister and it’s not as if it is making shed loads of losses. How can you not make it a success with that level of revenue coming in? I completely fail to understand!
Margins are being eroded at a breathtaking rate. If you have ever had to ‘turn round’ a business going in the wrong direction and quickly, it can be very scary how the money ‘pours’ out and trickles in. It’s not impossible but you gotta have the A team ready to go and some substantial investment ready. Alternatively; shut up shop and go find something easier to do.
Pretty simple really ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY FIVE MILLION DEBT incurred buying businesses where revenue has fallen not increased
Capital raise from institutions last year which reduced debt to current level where intstitutions have seen their investment tumble form 175p to 101p SP
The prices paid by CWD for these buisnesses reflected increased revenue . It hasn’t happened and now the banks want their money back so they have been on the back foot
I’m sorry just making a profit doesn’t butter the parsnips
You keep mentioning debt.
Debt is not a problem as long as you can service it.
You do know most large businesses have multi million pound debt?
Indeed they do however; where’s the bottom for CWD and are the investors keen to potentially throw good money after bad? Oaktree has a ‘good turn’ I suspect on their £200m cash for equity when they took 80% off of Apolo so, maybe they’ll reinvest some of that back in?
Of course but the fact remains that CW post profits and i think we are all agreed that they can turn the tide with the right individual(s) at the helm.
Hillofwad has made a big thing the last few days regarding debt and that is either naive or just harbouring a grudge. Some readers on here may not know that many successful companies have vast debt. The question is not “Do you have debt?” its a case of “Is your debt serviceable?”
Apple for example have a debt circa $100 billion – Does not hold them back or scare off investors.
Er; Apple has debt because they,d rather issue bonds at sub-3% than pay US tax on their overseas capital. This will change somewhat now Trump has slashed US corporation tax
Many reasons many businesses have debt.
Again its not about if you have debt its if you can service it.
Next stop…. Costa.
Bring your own kettle and have a coffee for 7p a cup or get them to make it badly for £4! They’ll even take the 7p you’ve already paid off the bill.
No profit, no problem!
First giggle of the morning 😉
In my humble opinion an estate agency however big or small needs to be run by estate agents
People who have actually grafted at the coal face and felt the pressure of running a High Street office. People who have known what it’s like to struggle for listings and know what to do to get them. People who have sat at a front desk and hit the phones, sat in lounges competing for business against four other agents and won it. If you’ve never been leaflet dropping or door knocking on a cold, wet January morning then you shouldn’t be telling anyone else how to sell houses.
I worked for Countrywide when Alison Platt and her little group of non estate agents took over. From the first email that mentioned the word retail I knew it was time to start looking around. Any agent with an ounce of sense and experience could see where this was going.
The disgusting thing is (and obviously we see this in all types of industry) the top dogs walk away with huge payoffs despite sending the company down the pan and the it’s staff that they’ve shafted that are left to pick up the pieces……or look for another job.
No doubt she’ll stroll straight into another business that she knows nothing about.
Agreed.
Generally I see little reason why it is not possible for a CEO to get to grips with an industry they are unfamiliar with. However, when it comes to estate agency, there is one crucial element that these people fail to understand, those at the coalface that have little interest in “retail”. It can’t be done in the way they would like because you do not get buy-in by the very people that make the business work, as well as suffering the lose of excellent staff.
Not shocked to hear this, but her role really was an impossible task. Countrywide’s problems stem from years of years of just bolting on one new business after another and compiling layers and layers of incompetent middle management. There is absolutely no experience or culture within the group for organic growth and it really is like one massive Jenga tower ready to topple. Countrywide has been obsessively cutting costs with no regard to the impact on staff motivation, staff quality and levels of customers service and of course its High Street brands. A shocking policy for a people facing business.. No chance of recovery as it stands, it needs to be bought out and asset stripped and then re-emerge in a much much smaller state. A text book case study in how not to grow or run a business.
She might just do a ‘Henry Bolton’ and sail on in blissful arrogance.
Bring Harry Hill back.
You positively have to be joking!! I am FAR too old to contemplate a task of this magnitude and also now have a super portfolio of non-executive roles in a variety of public and private companies.
Who ever is given the task will have my very best wishes – and sympathy!!
Harry Hill.
She will no doubt get a golden parachute that she doesn’t deserve
Sarcastic congratulations must go to her from many former colleagues
Never worked there and never admired the brand for its aggression and arrogance
It has been replaced by PB which is a bigger shame
Close to the exit? Just about to ‘crosscheck’, ‘set doors to manual’ and jump onto that ‘escape chute’. What confidence can there possibly be in the board? The non execs and those who have happily taken salary for being part of this decimation. As soon as ‘Estate Agency is Retail’ came out of her mouth in the board meeting they should have realised and stopped her dead in her tracks. All of them are culpable and responsible to varying degrees for this debacle. All being rewarded to lesser and greater degrees for destroying an organisation that, although not perfect by any stretch, made a good profit and was secure employment for many. Off Ali Pali will go with some form of payoff no doubt telling herself that ‘it was the market’ or some other fantasy that caused it to fail. Every agent who has even only mediocre ability and experience could see the ‘car crash’ that is Countrywide now coming two years ago. A friend of mine (saw sense and left) wrote several papers for management outlining the damage that their il-conceived and poorly executed reviolution would and did have. As with many I suspect, found himself marginalised. Whoever comes next will need a substantial sum of investment, 99% to be spent on people and not the ‘weak’ senior management, you know who you are, that remain because they really aren’t up to the job and couldn’t find an alternative although they have tried. 2018 is going to be very interesting!
Well said ! She was surrounded by a bunch of spineless sycophants , right down to area manager level . The only ones with any balls were the experienced branch staff , most of whom have left at this stage and cannot easily be replaced .
Very sad but; very true!
Not a surprise, the board have been very patient and indulged her in trying to reinvent the wheel with disastrous results.
Next CEO has a mess to sort out but hopefully this will be a boost to the long serving and suffering staff.
The board have not been patient, the have been inept and failed to carry out their duties on behalf of shareholders.
Platt’s shortcomings have been laid bare for a very long time,seemingly without any challenge from Neds.
If she is to go, then the next incumbent will have to quickly decide what Countrywide needs to look like going forward and put together a team to help them, as most of the good people that might have offered some wise words appear to have kicked into touch.
Tony Crew
We increased sales turnover by 15% so no excuses iam afraid. Not sure how staff were supposed to be the cheapest and the most expensive at the same time. Would confuse staff and customers.
Countrywide couldnt keep up when didgital cameras came in so trying ot compete with onliners lying propaganda was 1 step to far.
Absolutely 100% correct Tone! Hope retirement is treating you well?
I absolutely agree with Tony Crew, who like me, spent many years of his life, imperfectly of course, together with a large team of fully committed girls and guys, building the largest and most profitable estate agency business in Europe. The current board, very few of whom I know, appear to have sat and watched the current CEO radically change the entire fabric of the business and move along armies of people who I am sure had shortcomings, but did at least (very often) have years or decades of agency experience.
I have been gone from now debt laden Countrywide too long to know whether what remains can be salvaged, but if I had to guess, I would say not, without radical down sizing.
Great pity!
Harry Hill
Above comment worthy of a story in its own right.