Hunters' big week goes on - now a merger

Hunters Property Group is merging with Hunters Group Limited to form a 112-branch agency conducting around 10,000 sales and lettings transactions annually - with the promise of substantial new acquisitions later this year.

A joint statement by Kevin Hollinrake, managing director and co-founder of Hunters Property Group, and John Ozwell, founder and chairman of Hunters Group Limited, says we've been friends and admirers of each other's businesses for many years and are very excited about the potential that Hunters has to become a huge brand across the UK.

The expanded network promises to have over over 140 offices by the end of the year - so will have at least 28 new branded branches within just over four months - with a plan for further growth to around 500 offices in five years' time.

The news comes just a few days after the announcement that Hollinrake, a millionaire Yorkshireman reported to have once lived in a castle, has become the Conservative candidate for the local parliamentary seat of Thirsk and Malton. This means he will almost certainly become an MP at next spring's general election.

He started Hunters from just one branch in York in 1992. It then expanded in the so-called Golden Triangle area around Leeds, Harrogate, York and Wetherby, reaching 49 branches. Then in 2011 Hunters purchased the franchised branches of Countrywide's Bairstow Eves, taking the company name across wider parts of the UK, including London for the first time.

No announcement has yet been made on the future senior management of Hunters if Hollinrake makes it to Westminster.