Following on from this week’s report that more than 50 Countrywide branches have so far closed this year, a number of agents have contacted us requesting more information relating to the company’s closures.
Property Industry Eye recently revealed that almost a quarter of Countrywide branches have closed since 2016, while there are plans to potentially shut more offices in the near future.
According to the data, 47% of Gascoigne Pees branches have closed over the past four years, while Dixons and Abbots have seen 31% of branches close, followed by Bridgfords branches at 28%, and Taylors at 25%. Others have seen smaller losses.
EYE asked Countrywide to comment on the figures, but a company spokesperson insisted that the estate agency group “does not report on branch numbers”.
Below is a list of branches closed between 2016 and 2020.
Countrywide branch closures – 2016 and 2019:
Abbotts, Gorleston
Austin & Wyatt, Bishops Waltham
Austin & Wyatt, Eastleigh
Austin & Wyatt, Highcliffe
Austin & Wyatt, Southbourne
Bairstow Eves, Bromley
Bairstow Eves, Canvey Island
Bairstow Eves, Colchester
Bairstow Eves, Colindale
Bairstow Eves, Dover
Bairstow Eves, Edgware
Bairstow Eves, Frinton on Sea
Bairstow Eves, Gidea Park
Bairstow Eves, Harrow
Bairstow Eves, Horncastle
Bairstow Eves, Louth
Bairstow Eves, Maldon
Bairstow Eves, New Barnet
Bairstow Eves, Nuneaton
Bairstow Eves, Perivale
Bairstow Eves, Potters Bar
Bairstow Eves, Skegness
Bairstow Eves, South Woodham Ferrers
Bairstow Eves, Streetly
Bairstow Eves, Strood
Bairstow Eves, Westcliff on Sea
Bairstow Eves, Wickford
Beresford Adams, Rhyl
Blundells, Dronfield
Bridgfords, Fearnhead
Bridgfords, Huddersfield
Bridgfords, Huddersfield
Bridgfords, Leigh
Bridgfords, Leyland
Bridgfords, Lowton
Bridgfords, Northwich
Bridgfords, Preston
Bridgfords, Pudsey
Bridgfords, Richmond, North Yorks
Bridgfords, South Shields
Bridgfords, Stretford
Bridgfords, Urmston
Bridgfords, Whitefield
Carson & Co, Basingstoke
Carson & Co, Bracknell
Carson & Co, Lightwater
Carson & Co, Yateley
Clive Watkin, Ellesmere Port
Country & Waterside, Mawnan Smith
Dixons, Bromsgrove
Dixons, Cannock
Dixons, Coventry
Dixons, Dudley
Dixons, Harborne
Entwistle Green, Chorley
Entwistle Green, Penwortham
Entwistle Green, Southport
Entwistle Green, Wigan
Frank Innes, Arnold
Frank Innes, Clarendon Park
Freeman Forman, Burwash
Freeman Forman, Ticehurst
Fulfords, Kingsbridge
Fulfords, South Petherton
Gascoigne Pees, Alton
Gascoigne Pees, Cobham
Gascoigne Pees, Cobha
Gascoigne Pees, Epsom
Gascoigne Pees, Haslemere
Gascoigne Pees, Midhurst
Gascoigne Pees, Richmond, Surrey
Geering and Colyer, Ashford
King & Chasemore, Brighton, Preston Park
King & Chasemore, Horley
King & Chasemore, Horsham
King & Chasemore, North Bersted
Miller Countrywide, Callington
Miller Countrywide, Liskeard
Miller Countrywide, Penryn
Morris Dibben, Hythe
Morris Dibben, Southsea
Morris Dibben, Stubbington
Palmer Snell, Bridgwater
Palmer Snell, Gillingham
Palmer Snell, Parkstone
Spencers, Oadby
Spencers, Oakham
Stratton Creber, Camborne
Stratton Creber, Falmouth
Stratton Creber, Penzance
Taylors, Banbury
Taylors, Emersons Green
Taylors, Huntingdon
Taylors, Kempston
Taylors, Kingston
Taylors, Letchworth
Taylors, Newport Pagnell
Taylors, Sandy
Taylors, St Neots
Taylors, St Neots
Taylors, Stanground
Tucker Gardner, Sawston
Watson Bull & Porter , Cowes
Watson Bull & Porter , Freshwater
Watson Bull & Porter , Ventnor
Wilson Peacock, Biggleswade
Wilson Peacock, Letchworth
Woods Estate Agents, Yate
Abbotts, Hornchurch
Abbotts, Loughton
Abbotts, Romford
Alan de Maid, Petts Wood
Austin & Wyatt, Salisbury
Bairstow Eves, Chadwell Heath
Bairstow Eves, Goodmayes
Bairstow Eves, Hendon
Bairstow Eves, High Barnet
Bairstow Eves, Oldbury
Bairstow Eves, Upminster
Bairstow Eves, West Wickham
Beresford Adams, Rhyl
Bridgfords, Alsager
Bridgfords, Bolton
Bridgfords, Fulwood
Bridgfords, Holmes Chapel
Bridgfords, Jesmond
Bridgfords, Lymm
Bridgfords, South Shields
Bridgfords, Tynemouth
Bridgfords, Whitley Bay
Bridgfords, Woolston
Carson & Co, Maidenhead
Chappell & Matthews, Clifton Village
Countrywide Park Homes, Cambridge
Countrywide Residential Development, Esher
Entwistle Green, Cleveleys
Freeman Forman, Seaford
Fulfords, Okehampton
Gascoigne Pees, Banstead
Gascoigne Pees, East Sheen
Gascoigne Pees, Ewell
Gascoigne Pees, Ham
Gascoigne Pees, Hinchley Wood
Gascoigne Pees, Richmond
Hamptons, Barnes
Hamptons, Canford Cliffs
Hamptons, Mayfair West End
Hamptons, Walton-On-Thames
Hetheringtons, Buckhurst Hill
Hetheringtons, Cuffley
Hetheringtons, Mill Hill
Hetheringtons, North Chingford
Hetheringtons, Rickmansworth
Hetheringtons, Theydon Bois
John D Wood, Clapham
John D Wood, Islington
John D Wood, Islington
John D Wood, Ladbroke Grove
John D Wood, Shepherds Bush & Brook Green
Mann & Co, Bromley
Mann & Co, Eltham
Mann & Co, Orpington
Mann & Co, Purley
Mann & Co, Welling
Miller Countrywide, Mevagissey
Stratton Creber, Torpoint
Taylors, Banbury
Taylors, Letchworth – Lettings
List of branches closed in 2020:
Abbotts, Hellesdon, Norwich
Abbotts, Barkingside, Ilford
Abbotts, Taverham, Norwich
Abbotts, Swaffham
Abbotts, Halesworth
Abbotts, Norwich (Thorpe St Andrew)
Abbotts, Hadleigh
Austin & Wyatt, Southsea
Austin & Wyatt, Fareham
Austin & Wyatt, Park Gate, Southampton
Bairstow Eves, Waltham Cross
Bairstow Eves, Northolt Bairstow Eves, Ravenshead, Nottingham
Bairstow Eves, Great Barr, Birmingham
Bairstow Eves, Chadwell Heath, Romford
Bairstow Eves, Benfleet
Bairstow Eves, Waltham Cross
Beresford Adams, Ruthin
Beresford Adams, Conwy
Beresford Adams, Abergele
Bridgfords, Prestbury, Macclesfield
Bridgfords, Hyde
Bridgfords, Wilmslow
Bridgfords, Gosforth
Carson & Co, Hook
Carson & Co, Fleet
Chappell & Matthews, Thornbury, Bristol
Chappell & Matthews, Chippenham
Clive Watkin, Bebington, Birkenhead
Clive Watkin, Willaston, Neston
Dixons, Sheldon, Birmingham
Dixons, Burntwood
Dixons, Hodge Hill, Birmingham
Dixons, Stourbridge
Entwistle Green, Rawtenstall
Entwistle Green, Runcorn
Frank Innes, Radcliffe-On-Trent,
Frank Innes, Beeston, Nottingham
Frank Innes, Uttoxeter
Fulfords, Teignmouth
Fulfords, Seaton
Fulfords, Sidmouth
Fulfords, Budleigh Salterton
Geering and Colyer, Faversham
John Francis, Morriston, Swansea
King & Chasemore, Felpham, Bognor Regis
King & Chasemore, Newhaven, Eastbourne
King & Chasemore, Crawley Down
Palmer Snell, Bridgwater
Palmer Snell, Bridport
Palmer Snell, Winton
Palmer Snell, Somerton
Palmer Snell, Wincanton,
Spencers, Hinckley
Spencers, Market Harborough
Spencers, Rugby
Taylors, Hemel Hempstead
Taylors, Brackley
Taylors, Hemel Hempstead
Taylors, Patchway
Taylors, Wellingborough
Comments (28)
As others have noted this is lazy journalism and looks as though C’wide is the only show in town when it comes to branch closures.
Will we be seeing a detailed list of all the branches your friend Paul Smith has closed down in the last 5 years in The Eye next week?
Or how about the Arun Group who have closed a fair few of their branches in the past month without you noticing?
It’s all getting a bit boring now.
How about a positive story or two for a change?
I have said before that this is criminal. I was part of Black Horse after Pru days and looked after the FS in Geering and Colyer and Gascoigne pees. G&C had 2 very poor advisors in place in 23 offices and Gascoigne had a few cherry pickers in situ.
The GPees were incredibly successful and million pound branches were commonplace.
I think it was Cobham that banked 110k in one month. bearing in mind property prices in late 80s.
Whilst Alison had plenty to do with its downfall, I think the rot set in prior with the appointment of Turner who as aBDM head in Lloyds Bank had zero experience and apparently met Harry in the stock exchange (what would a BDM be doing there) True or not he had little time for the business and appointed Alison who he knows from the Foreign and Commonwealth office.
But between all that we had a newly appointed MD In King And Chasemore from FS removed because he was not an agent and replaced with a guy from Freeman Forman who had inherited a poor performing agency and kept it there.
At the same time a Assistant Divisional FS guy with no track record was offering guarantees of 40K for a ex pro footballer who thought he was to become a roving Ambassador.!
Good MDs were hounded with “you have exceeded your mandate” whilst being profitable for umpteen years. You get the picture
He is now the main man on the south coast and probably covers many of these offices that have closed.
Countrywide should be approaching the landlords for a 3 month rent holiday with a sweetner of 1 month at the end of the lease.
680 branches at an average of 18K rent would give them some breathing space and a clear out of management would help.
The problem is however of who that leader is going to be.
Who is left in the Industry who is tough, fair and visionary. Lots of nice people but not many tough ones and it will need someone to review and really focus on underperformance sharpish.
What a desperately sad time for all the teams at these branches who now find themselves either out of work or transported into unfamiliar locations miles away.
The advice surely for any CWD employee surely is to make a proactive move now and secure a new position before the new owners of the business ( who ever that may be) initiates further cleansing of the old CWD branches/employees-especially those in under performing branches and those in mid to upper management positions.
I sincerely hope all CWD employees are OK and continue to work within our great industry-there are some good opportunities out there but only so many to go round.
“The name above the door is not important, the names of the people inside the door are and how motivated and skilled they are.”
Surely they go hand in hand if Gazump & Gazunder have a bad reputation no matter how good the manager “Mr Exemplarneg” is
instructions are not good to arrive thru the door
You’re missing Abbotts Unthank Road, NR2, That also closed – circa 2017
….and Abbotts Bungay, Dereham, Wickham Market, Debenham, Woodbridge, all late 2016
….. ooh, don’t forget the branch in Fishponds, Bristol that I closed eighteen years ago !!
For heaven’s sake onwards&upwards, get over your self ….
To quote Mr Wallace ‘estate agency is a national cottage industry’ and that is why 80% of agents are not corporates, but locals who for decades are ingrained into the local fabric of the community. A name change for CW is not the answer, to let corporate branches have good teams with managers allowed to flourish is an answer. The name above the door is not important, the names of the people inside the door are and how motivated and skilled they are.
Another problem of agency is that 40% of personnel change their job every 18 months, it could be a higher role, or leaving a company, or setting up, but the dynamic is that agency is full of dysfunctional, crazy, hard working people and to keep them long term in a corporate is a very tall order. Many who leave set up independent agencies which dominate their former corporate counterparts.
Countrywide generally purchased great brands with great staff who were on the whole well managed by strong teams. Unless you are an online operator Estate Agency is about being local and the most important part of that are the staff in the offices. Get back to basics, let the sales staff sell. Do not load them up with bureaucracy but make life easier for them and rather than keep telling them what they are not doing help them do what they do well. The brands they purchased were respected within the areas they operated, I am not sure a rebrand to one name would be helpful unless that brand was such a strong name associated with estate agency in its own right. All those great names that were sold in the 1980’s that became GA Property Services or Prudential. Everyone new who the Pru were but it did not help when it came to selling houses.
I was part of pro property as its top mortgage advisor . The issue was not repeat not at the top but at Director level who swanned around with head office pay deals in their pockets and changing cars more often than I change my footsteps while walking.
The guys in the branches by and large were good and turnover per Branch was good. Expenses were stratospheric.
Its what happens when you spend someone else’s money.
Whilst some of the CW brands have local resonance the reality is that a single national brand would ultimately have been a better strategy. Just look at how quickly Purplebricks went from nowhere to being nationally recognised. One brand. One message.
Fact is, if you said ‘Who is Countrywide?’ very few people outside the industry would know. Even without the Platt debacle CW has orchestrated its own weakness.
Not sure history would agree with you AI. National brands don’t always work well, it apparently cost the Prudential £340m. Purplebricks fortunes are very much underpinned by Axel’s massive marketing spend. When that well runs dry, its anyones guess.
….. in the “Post Ros” era, is this what counts as “journalism” ? How about showing a shred of humanity towards the hundreds of hard working people across the Country that have either lost their jobs or wake up every day fearing that today is the day when they might ….
Yes The brands very quiet within CWD about the treatment by the BODS .Their careers threatened by grotesque misamangement by the BODS .
Tossed around like a bag of spuds .
You would have thought some of the senior execs amongst the Brands would have grown a pair and put their heads above the parapet and voiced their concerns
Nothing -nada seemingly a bunch of journeymen and women
As an ex-employee of Countrywide Plc – Taylors – I worked there until 1989, I have watched the decimation of the 40 or so Taylors branches which sat inside the Countrywide brand, over the past 30 years and saw it very much as a barometer as to the fortunes of the whole of the company. Historically Taylors as a brand, was often number one in each of its towns or village areas, dominant in terms of sold and listed stock and level of fees charged for a job well done. The reason for the success was ‘clear, strong, management, core objectives, that came from the c-suite and everyone bought into it.’
Just as a a non-performing sales office can be turned around in 6 weeks with a new manager who is on it, the slow death of Countrywide in my opinion is due to the c-suite, who in the last decade and a half lost the vision, lost control, and in the last five years have been waiting for a grown up to come and help them out. I greatly pity the extremely hardworking rank and file members of Countrywide who are now like passengers on a large bus, and the driver is very much asleep at the wheel, driving towards the precipice.
Well said.
“Business closes non profit making locations” Its hardly news is it PIE? An independent would certainly cease trading from a location if it didn’t provide a return, so why are you basing a corporate for doing the same. This story does now feel a bit one sided, dare I say biased. In fact the list isn’t even accurate, the office local to me is still trading. This is sloppy journalism @marcdasilva . From what I understand, the remainder now trades at a significant profit now the loss makers are gone.
This is starting to feel like a witch hunt , We know the business has problems and has made some monumental errors , however rationalising the network seems wholly sensible to me .
Most agents big or small many highly profitable are rationalising office networks as they re imagine their business structure and service delivery so as to to be fit for purpose in the modern world.
If CWEA had strong dynamic leadership these closures and perhaps more would have happened by design rather than maybe being forced but they are inevitable and always were
I for one hope they survive and or find a capable buyer .
it seems these articles are starting to celebrate the decline of a once great institution in the same way the mass media peddles doom and gloom for headlines.
Agree fully iainwhite87. What ever happens with CW in the coming weeks, months and years, one thing is for sure, many of our peers in the industry will unfortunatly be seeking new employment.
And believe it or not CW have not furloughed any staff during the new furlough scheme – I know other agents, independent and other larger companies both have done.
In addition, they are still actively advertising for new staff where required. Most agents are not.
is this really a sign of a company in imminent risk of administration?
No it isn’t.
Agreed!
Couple of those branches are still open albeit long since speculated on for how long. Somebody better tell the staff!
I am always amazed that somebody at CW did not have the idea (sense) to rebrand all the branches across the country under one name. This would give the public a true sense of a national agency with a huge reach. Speak to most Jo/Joe publics of the world, they have no idea who Countrywide are. Connells are Connells pretty much everywhere, and their Sequence names all live within the same branding structure – to promote continuity and familiarity.
Am I being too simplistic?
It’s a point well made. The multi brands date back to Harry H’s acquisition mission. But there’s a counter argument that the goodwill or value of a local brand name, in a local town, isn’t worth dropping in favour of a national brand.
Local branding is obviously quite important for many of the brands CW bought. However they could of went with a “Brand Name, In partnership with Countrywide” approach perhaps?
The big issue there is that in itself doesn’t work.
Estate agency is first and foremost a “local people” business that lives and dies by its local reputation, and it doesn’t matter who’s name is above the door, if local people don’t see that brand as being someone they can trust to oversee their move, then brand simply doesn’t matter.
In this day and age it’s for the branch managers to be true local professionals with local knowledge, and some skin in the game to ensure it works.
McDonaldsisation simply does not work in estate agency.
2015
“There will be more acquisitions following that of Greene & Co.” Alison Platt
Branch closures were always going to be the case for a company hoovering up brands on borrowed monies in an attempt to create “synergy” .
A word bandied about no longer appearing in the CWD lexicon nor Alison Platts ” Better to be Bigger”
That long list of closures , indicating that synergy failed lamentably with a huge debt overhang for the strategy
However the latest list is mainly underperforming branches so although regrettable it’s difficult to knock the fact that they are being closed
What is for certain as the old guard head off into the sunset with their golden goodbyes and goldplated pensions a lot more closures
Last week yet another raft of abortive costs inccurred by the BODS following on from an abortive merger with LSL and failed sale of LSH as the corporate action with Alchemy was stopped in its tracks by the arrival of Connells .
Who knows how many closures that might involve?
We also heard the BODS are now involved in court action against JPM seeking £10m for the loss in value in LSH since his failure to complete last December
Yet another fruitless action likely to resut in more abortive costs by a quick glance at his UK companies -empty shells
The best excuse yet the Dane who clearly had a crystal ball on COVID in December when he was due to complete the purchase .
Comedy Gold
In a recent interview
“Responding to questions by Danish publication Real Estate Watch about whether he had the finances to “undertake such a project, Moeller blamed the coronavirus pandemic for the deal’s collapse.
“[The] calculation upon which the acquisition was based has changed significantly from the deal we originally signed in November 2019,” he said. ”
It looks a lot but in most cases it’s been simply a case of moving a stand alone lettings business into a stand alone estate agents, this has mainly been done where the offices are located on the same high street.
The business operates far less standalone businesses now which makes perfect sense to get more value out of one premises rather than pay twice for the same amount of revenue.
Great news about the potential investors interested in CW, I hear a third private equity firm are now interested also and a new cash offer from Alchemy to rival Connells is on the cards. It’s a great move to ensure the company enters the largest recession in living memory without debt, millions of companies across the land would wish they could do the same I am sure.