Hunters, one of the country’s leading estate agents, is delighted to report its most successful year to date, having opened an unprecedented number of new branches; floating on the London Stock Exchange and launching a dedicated Residential Development & Investment arm.
The Hunters brand expanded rapidly across the country throughout 2015, opening in an impressive 32 new locations including Oxford, Southampton, London, Sunderland, the Wirral, Norfolk and Kent. The expansion included 21 existing independent agents from single branches to larger networks such as Kudos Residential, one of Norfolk’s leading sales and lettings agency, who joined the company and rebranded its seven office network to Hunters in June and Black & White Estates’ four branch network in Kent who rebranded in October. These alliances took Hunters into new territory ensuring its position as one of the top brands in the industry as more and more independent agents take advantage of the benefits of being part of a national network.
Having opened its first branch 24 years ago in York, Hunters now has 170 branches nationwide and is planning further expansion over coming years in pursuit of achieving their goal of becoming the UK’s favourite estate agent.
Andrew Bushell, Sales Director of Hunters Franchising said: “2015 was a ground-breaking year for Hunters; not only did we expand into new territories with a record number of branch openings, we also received unprecedented levels of interest across the country from both new start-up operations and conversions of independent estate agencies looking to join the Hunters network. As such we have a strong pipeline in place for 2016 and are already about to open our doors in locations in the North West and central London during quarter one.”
In addition to Hunters’ organic growth through conversion and start-ups, the company also grew through the acquisition of Country Properties, an established franchised operation with strongholds in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire, adding a further 23 branches to the network.
Glynis Frew, Managing Director of Hunters Property Plc added: “I believe a major reason for our success is our focus on people and not just property – our agents are trained to put the customer at the heart of our services. We also have a great internal team who are passionate about our business and who are experts in all the key areas that are crucial to running a successful estate agency franchise. We are very excited about the year ahead.”
Commenting on the continued brand development, Pernilla Tweddle, Marketing Director for Hunters said: “2015 saw several milestones that took our brand into many new locations and onto new, exciting platforms. This included the launch of our brand promise ‘Here to get you there’ and our first national TV commercial which illustrates how moving house is so much more than just a transaction.”
