Another senior figure at Countrywide has left the company.
The reasons behind the departure of Keith Knight are not known.
Countrywide, led by Alison Platt whose emphasis is on retail and the company’s Building our Future programme, is due to report to the stock market this week.
As already reported by EYE, it is understood that there is to be a widespread restructure of branches, with perhaps up to 200 which will be closed, re-branded or merged.
A statement yesterday evening from Countrywide gave no detail on the latest departure, saying: “Keith Knight left the company earlier this month to take on a new challenge.”
Knight had been ‘retail director’ for south-east Countrywide, and worked for the company in total for over eight years.
His appointment as retail director for the south-east was announced in the company’s huge restructure last October:
https://www.propertyindustryeye.com/news-flash-yet-more-high-level-departures-from-countrywide/
Prior to the reshuffle, Knight would have been known as the managing director for the south-east, in charge of around 100 branches.
Knight was previously with Arun Estates, where he was senior operations director, but before that had been a regional director with Countrywide.
Departures since Platt took over almost two years ago have included that of Robert Scarff, who headed up the estate agency part of the business.
Comments (6)
I worked alongside him and thought he was one of the most dynamic and genuine Leaders I have ever met. I know he doubled the income in the South East of England in less than 5 years. A top man, great lettings/estate agent.
Knight had been retail director……… Time they had some estate agents to run their business!
Knight is an estate agent hence why he’s leaving because like all the other estate agents that have left he can see it going very wrong because as you point out they have no estate agents running the business!
‘“Keith Knight left the company earlier this month to take on a new challenge.”
For which read:
“We don’t know what Keith’s new challenge is. We don’t care what that new challenge is. It might be a challenge that involves more time with his family or more time doing the garden. We really don’t know. In fact Keith doesn’t know what the new challenge is because he wasn’t expecting to be taking on one any time soon. (You should have seen the look on his face when we told him – it was a picture). We are just delighted that we have weeded out yet another person who knows a great deal about estate agency but squat about retail.”
Like rats……………….
Interesting times ahead for Countrywide staff!