The UK’s largest estate agent has confirmed the departure of another key player while defending its Building our Future strategy.
Client services director Ian Brownridge, who was also operations director at Countrywide brand Faron Sutaria, has left. Insiders say this was at short notice with the departure happening on July 31.
Brownridge had been appointed client services director in only January of this year, meaning he held the post for just eight months, but yesterday evening Countrywide said this had only been an interim position.
Countrywide said: “After almost five years working with the business, Ian Brownridge has decided to take on a new challenge and left Countrywide last month. We thank Ian for his significant contribution and wish him well in his future career.”
Brownridge was previously a partner at Carter Jonas and before that a sales manager at Foxtons.
Countrywide declined to comment on our question, that ‘Project Spring’ is the code name for its branch/brand closure operation. It said it does not comment on project names.
We also asked if brands Faron Sutaria, Hetheringtons and Alan de Maid are to be mothballed and subsumed into John D Wood.
The Countrywide spokesperson said: “The Faron Sutaria office in Chiswick is merging with John D Wood & Co in Chiswick.
“There are no changes to the operations of Hetheringtons and Alan de Maid. Both businesses enjoy the benefits of their long-standing association with John D Wood & Co and continue to offer a very personalised service delivered by some of the finest, most professional and experienced individuals in the market.
“The South Clapham branch is due to close and John D Wood & Co will continue to service the Clapham area from its newly-refurbished Wandsworth branch and the Battersea branch.”
Graham Bell, managing director London, at 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.
“Within London, we are making some organisational changes across a small number of branches which will involve strategic branch consolidations, rebrands and closures.
“These changes enable us to have the right brand in the right location to service customers across all price points.
“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.”
Comments (11)
CW can’t have it both ways, they are improving things for their clients AND their staff! what by increasing their staff’s working hours!! or are they going to use the staff from the closed offices to cover a late shift elsewhere!!
CW have been at it for a long time and in the past knew what they were doing but now I think they will need a couple of years or more for this new idea to bed in as for right people in right places, I think that goes without saying for any business.
In fairness this all makes total sense. Shutting the doors on those offices bleeding the company dry, setting up a hybrid agency re branding and restructuring.
They’ll cut their cloth with a lot of premises, staff and then pump a shed load of £ into those offices which remain and re-brand as need be. Whilst it’s easy to take a pop at CW this is actually quite sensible.
Agree Local Agent – I hear 69 offices going but loads of those are town duplicates – makes sense.
Agreed this is a sensible idea, but they need the right people in the right places to really make it work and the business model as a whole needs addressing. You can throw as much money as you like at something, but, as has been proved in our locality, it takes more than that to produce success!
Hornchurch and Leigh on Sea Abbotts shut already. 6 months after Leigh has just had a massive refurbishment.
Not true, Leigh on Sea is alive and kicking and holding its own! Cannot speak for Hornchurch. However, may I suggest you check your facts prior to posting.
DO NOT under estimate the Countrywide new hybrid strategy or their close working relationship with RM.
NO NOT underestimate the publics common sense…… The ONLY way CW will shake off their reputation is to rebrand and rename. Just being “YourlocalCWBrandHyrib” will simply mean the public will feel they do not even have an office to walk in to and ******* someone face to face for being to poor…. instead it will be lots of hold music or emails.
Obviously meant DO NOT…. haha it’s Friday!
DO NOT under estimate !
Just feeling the force everyone !
10 Green Bottles anyone?