The chief executive officer of embattled estate agency Countrywide, Alison Platt, resigned today after a crash in share price following last week’s profit warning.
The company has lost market share and posted profit slumps owing to what chairman Peter Long described as “lost expertise”.
In an interview with EG, Long said: “The market has done Alison done no favours at all. It’s been tough.”
“But the competition have a lot of seasoned industry people that have a done a better job than we have, as they have taken market share from us.”
Disappointing results
Countrywide’s sales and lettings business saw UK pretax profits slide by 45% in 2017 overall, according to a trading statement issued last week. Since then its share price has fallen by 25%.
Since June 2016, Countrywide’s share price has fallen by 72.6%.
Long, who has taken over the running of the company while it hunts for a new chief executive, said Countrywide lost market share because of a change in leadership from industry to non-industry. Specifically, he points to the appointment of Sam Tyrer as head of sales and lettings, or retail as its known in the company.
“The belief was that a retailer could help develop the businesses, and what we saw was that did not work,” says Long. “Therefore the decision was made that was not the right style and skill set required and that was why Alison made the decision for her to leave the organisation, and actually take personal control through the regional directors.”
Tyrer left in August last year, with Platt taking on direct responsibility for the sales and letting business.
Taking responsibility
“In fairness, she had identified that in the middle of last year, made changes and took personal responsibility, It’s not a case of her doing nothing and just letting it carry on, far from it,” says Long.
“She picked the mantle up, and I respect her for that. She said, ‘I am going to run it through experienced leaders,’ but she then concluded this has continued to deteriorate and she needed to step aside.”
Current managing director of commercial development Paul Creffield has been made operations director and put in charge of the sales and letting business. He has worked at Countrywide for a number of years after joining from Rightmove.
Creffield will be supported by Long and chief financial officer Himanshu Raja, who will take care of the corporate management of the business.
Long has been chairman of the Countrywide board since 2017. His last direct role was as chief executive of travel agency TUI, though he has no direct experience of estate agency.
Focus on expertise
Long said there needed to be a focus on expertise and a back-to-basics approach, and that the agency needs to reveal a clear plan of action by the time it releases its March quarterly results.
“We are going to give local offices the resources to do the job,” he said.
“As far as the detail and what that all means, we are going to articulate that in March. I am not going to second guess now, as Paul has just taken on the responsibilities.”
Long says it is about ensuring Countrywide has enough resources at the branch level.
“It’s all about lead generation, turning those into market appraisals, turning those into a listing and then selling, making sure we have sufficient resources in the branch network, and the right spans of control at the regional level.”
He said that no parts of the business would be sold off – Countrywide also owns Hamptons, Taylors and Bairstow Eves, alongside its commercial and B2B arms. He added that the agency would be going on a hiring spree.
A sound model
He was adamant that the wider estate agency model was sound – as was Countrywide’s expansion – and that it was just a broken business.
“I have worked in disruptive sectors, and I am not paranoid about disruptors, because I do not think that’s the issue. The issue we have got is that we have lost out to traditional competitors.
“This is far from doom and gloom, quite the opposite. This is not a business in structural decline, this is just a business that is broken and needs to be fixed, and we are going to tell you how we are going to fix that and then we move forward and rebuild.”
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