NEWS FLASH: Countrywide sells Bairstow Eves business to Hunters

Monday 5th September 2011

In a surprise move, Countrywide has sold all of its Bairstow Eves franchised branches to Yorkshire independent Hunters.

A total of 90 offices are in the sale, announced at noon today and whose value has not been disclosed.

All the Bairstow Eves offices will now be under Hunters’ ownership and all of the offices will rebrand to Hunters over the next six months. The Countrywide Franchise management team, led by Andrew Grant, will also be joining the Hunters team and continue to have responsibility for the offices.

The deal means that Hunters more than doubles in size, taking it to almost 200 operations, and turns Hunters into a national force, with 21 of the Bairstow Eves offices in London.

Hunters currently has 17 high street offices, all in the north and including 11 franchised offices, plus 33 Personal Agents who are also franchised. The firm handles a wide variety of property services, including lettings, new homes and conveyancing.

The deal marks a tremendous turnaround for Hunters, which was hit badly during the recession – partly because much of its growth pre-credit crunch came from the buy-to-let boom in northern city centres.

Today, managing director Kevin Hollinrake, who co-founded Hunters in 1992, said: “The recession was grim for us, as it was for most estate agents, but it never blunted our appetite to grow. It made no difference to our ambitions to become the UK’s number one agent.

“I am absolutely delighted with our purchase. It gives us the footprint we want, and I absolutely believe in the franchising model as the way forward. We intend to invest heavily in it, with refitting many of the offices and launching a major national advertising campaign.”
 
Countrywide has had a franchise estate agency operation since 2000 but said it decided to sell the business in order to focus on its owned operations.

Robert Scarff, managing director of Countrywide’s estate agency division, said: “Over the years we have built up a good, profitable franchise business.

“Countrywide strategy remains focused on expanding our portfolio of directly owned branches; therefore it was a natural progression to pass the business on to a company that has the capabilities to develop the network and to take on board the requirements of the franchisees.

“The Hunters business model complements that of our own franchise offices and we feel that they have a great proposition, with the ability to provide franchisees with the support they need to continue to grow their businesses.”
 
As part of the deal, Countrywide will offer financial and surveying services to the Hunters network.