Martin & Co is buying EweMove for £15m, it is announcing to the stock market this morning.
The money is going for the purchase of a network of 90 operators, with a number working from home.
Of the purchase money, £8m will be paid upfront for £5m in cash and £3m in shares.
The remaining £7m will be linked – unusually – to the performance not just of EweMove, but of the whole group.
Martin & Co regard the deal as a way of getting into the online/hybrid agency market.
EweMove’s jokes, culture and identity will be retained, right down to the description of co-founder Glenn Ackroyd’s job description as ‘head shepherd’.
The deal will add 90 new franchisees to the Martin & Co group. Last night, Martin & Co CEO Ian Wilson agreed that most of these work from out of their homes, although he said that some have been eyeing up high street premises.
He said: “Yes, a lot will be trading from their bedroom, a bit like Purplebricks. But 20% of them are getting to the stage where they are considering that an office might be necessary.”
EweMove was founded by Glenn Ackroyd and David Laycock in the wake of their earlier business offering quick sales to home owners. Both men are being retained alongside the business.
Wilson said he had been watching EweMove’s progress with interest for over two and a half years, and been impressed with its TrustPilot reviews. “It has gone from 0 to 90 franchisees since January 2014,” said Wilson.
Martin & Co’s last purchase was of Xperience. Last night, Wilson said this purchase had been entirely successful, after costs had been stripped out.
He said of the latest purchase that he was happy with EweMove’s image of being a fluffy sheep.
“Most of the public regard agents as sharks,” said Wilson.
Comments (31)
£1.65 million turnover..
They have 90 franchises.
£18,333 each.
Now let’s talk about costs because these are important… 🙂
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Profit before tax £120,000.
A website and 700 odd ‘gushing’ reviews for £15 million.
They don’t rank on Google for sh*t, just adwords, adwords and more adwords….
Edit, sorry they do rank for:
estate agents leek 1st – a couple of customers a week..
estate agents barry 2nd – a couple of customers a week..
Nothing else of note!
Adwords on the other hand…
estate agents southport 1st
readings estate agents 1st
doncaster estate agents 1st
estate agents halifax 1st
There’s more…Liverpool, Milton Keynes, York, Reading etc etc…
Don’t these big internet, innovating, disrupting companies know how to rank organically on Google anymore?
Such easy keywords as well. no offence!
The is Shear brilliance
Ewe are all absolutely right
I bet Glenn is about to get the Flock out of here and rack up a stupid Baa tab
After pulling the wool over Martin & Cos eyes he’s absolutely rounded then up and penned them in
The Head Sheppard himself will sleep well tonight…… A wolf in sheep’s clothing
How long did it take to come up with that one?
He missed one – but far be it from me to ram that fact down his throat…
;o)
With these corporates buying online agents it seems like the rise of online is a self fulfilling prophecy.
They are only buying them because they ‘think’ that they are missing out on a good chunk of the market, leading to the consistent financial backing of a large chain, leading to the rise of the online. All entrants have failed to make money and without consistent financial backing they wouldn’t even be as large as they are without begging for money from Bandson, crowdfunding, or shares.
NONE are yet to make a profit – but they are the next evolution of Estate Agency???
Can you tell me any other business/business model that runs at a deficit that is cited as the next revolution – answers on the back of a postage stamp please!!!!
Clarkuk
Amazon, Twitter , LinkedIn , there’s loads of examples.
Am I missing a huge part of the valuation equation?
558 properties for sale between 90 franchisees?
An average of 6 properties per franchisee?
How does the average franchisee make a living wage?
If each franchisee generates just 3 vals a week – that’s 270 total.
A less than startling conversion of 1:3 gives 90 instructions a week – I cannot see that EweMove are listing anywhere near that.
If 20% of franchisees have grown so big that they are thinking of opening on the high street I would have thought 30+ properties for sale would be a tipping point. But, 20% of 90 is 18, and 18 x 30 is 540 and EweMove have 558 properties for sale.
So, either the 20% high street possibles are running before they can walk or 72 franchisees are on the bones of their ….
How many of those self employed franchisees are out today on valuations, leaflet dropping or otherwise drumming up business?
Glenn, if you are reading, this is not a criticism but a critique.
It may well be the Martins are buying into your personal business acumen and ability to establish a national hybrid presence. If that is the case very well done for negotiating that price on your head.
They’re conversion rates are way higher than average estate agents. Most estate agents haven’t embraced a little thing called internet marketing. The industry is running off old numbers and old methods. The franchisees are not leaflet dropping when the website does lead gen centrally for them. Oh and not just a good job, the BEST in the country.
Winny
36 Listings (total incl. Reductions and re-listings) in last 7 days
66 Listings (as above) in last 14 days
125 +/-5 Listings in last 28.
Figures from RM.
Z figures are var-nigh impossible to collate as take into account something like 88 ‘branches’.
In fairness they’ve got Lettings income of some sort as well…
JC97,
If conversion rates are way higher than average then my 3 vals a week x 90 franchisees should result in ‘way higher’ total of weekly instructions than my 90 @ 33% conversion.
Let’s assume it’s 50%, that’s 135 instructions a week against PB’s recent average instructions of c30 a week.
Which means at 50% conversion its only 60 vals a week between 90 franchisees – less than 1 val each.
At 33% conversion its still only 90 a week – 1 val per franchisee.
It doesn’t add up to a lead generation program that can possibly provide an income for 90 franchisees.
No wonder they are self employed – EM could never afford the most basic of salaries.
Hmm. Online ‘property experts’ eyeing up high street premises eh. Seems like the wheel is being reinvented. How long before the self employed ‘property experts’ feeding the online biggies find they can’t survive on the promises made and open in the high street in their own right so they can list on other portals?
“had been entirely successful, after costs had been stripped out.” Hmmm, ‘costs’ AKA staff?
I hear a lot of bleating but don’t see much wool.
Sheep jokes aside for a moment, this is a bit of a coup.
The idea that online/hybrid agency will never pick up traction is a bit far-fetched. The sector has some way to go, but the EweMove model has proven incredibly successful in just two years of operation. This as an investment in the future, not a cost – technology finds a way and EweMove has already done so. M&Co will incorporate that way of thinking into their structure and reap the benefits moving into the future.
At least, that’s what I think.
‘Sheep jokes aside for a moment, this is a bit of a coup.’
Sheep don’t belong in coups – chickens do.
No. Chickens go in coupes.
Actually, it’s coops – but who’s counting? ;o)
Sorry, I thought we were deliberately using the wrong words. You can’t use the wrong word in a joke, then have someone also use a wrong word in a follow-up joke to continue the game, and then take the moral highground as you correct the person, considering they only did what you did (which was ALSO use the wrong word).
Head’s gone.
I would respectfully suggest that a ‘moral highground’ stance doesn’t end with a winky.
So I guess I’m now a pedant as well… ;o)
I concur completely with your conclusion, though…
Without wanting to belabour the punning, this really is just another example of sheep-like behaviours in the market place.
You’ve got big agencies jumping onto the hybrid bandwagon and investors queuing up to stick their money into companies that may or may not make distributable profits in the future.
Where one leads, others follow. That’s sheep (or just possibly lemmings) for you.
I think Glens achievements are absolutely to be celebrated. The reason we are all wanting to celebrate Glenns acheivments so much is that is quite unbelievable . We are celebrating the fact that hes managed to dupe 15m out of them. I applaud that, I wish Id done it. It still doesn’t take away from the head-scratching thats going on all around.
Im starting to think I may be missing something when I laugh at the likes of PB having a market cap of £330m and now ewe move being sold for £15m. I just dont get it.
I see that of the £15 million, £3 million is in additional shares and £7 million is ‘subject to performance’. So the headline sale price is a bit misleading. Still, I’d be bleating well happy with £5 million in my back pocket.
Don’t be too quick to condemn this, of all the firms built to this model Ewemove is the one you have to respect for what has been built and what has been achieved; Mr Ackroyd has got on and built something without all the shouty, vexatious,hullabaloo of other sector founders who I am guessing will be mighty, mighty envious of this acquisition. The thought that at least two characters are sat there overlooked, more likely dismissed, for what is a serious wedge of cash is just wonderful.
Here here, well said Robert.
Glenn’s achievements should be celebrated.
20% of these sheep are eyeing up premises!! What are Martin and Co thinking? £15 million!!!! The other 80% wont be far behind them in eyeing up and securing premises. Why didn’t M & co buy a proper agent? Madness.
someone’s had the wool pulled over their eyes!
Mad as it is, you have to give credit to Ackroyd and Laycock for fleecing £15 million out of Martin & Co.
It’s certainly worthy of 1st April!
Sending lambs to the slaughter! Baaaaaa….!
In a conversation yesterday I said that ‘the lunatics are taking over the asylum’.
I was right.
Heads Gone.
This is a joke, right?!
Sadly I don’t think so.