Ask an advisory firm what its top priorities are and you will usually get a generic response about staying ahead of the game and delivering a good service to clients. But while Rob Senior, co-founder of niche agency Hanover Green, values those qualities, he believes a team in which everybody’s voice is heard is the secret to a happy and successful company.
It is a message that seems to be finding resonance, with news emerging in August that two JLL directors would be joining to create a new retail arm to the business. Martin Thomas was formerly head of JLL’s central London retail lease advisory team and Luke Hargreaves was a director in the same team. The 17-strong agency has also recently taken on three graduates.
“We like to think we are very progressive and regenerating – we aren’t just old folks at the top of the tree. We are employing young people and trying to have people share in the business,” Senior says.
Co-founder David Cuthbert adds: “We believe in giving young people the chance to grow and expand their markets through succession and we are keen on people joining the equity and having their say. There is no hierarchy; it doesn’t matter who you are, all your ideas are listened to.”
Currently eight members of the Hanover Green team hold equity. The company was founded in September 2009 by Senior, Cuthbert and four others who left DTZ, and two who came from Capita and Thomas Davidson, to pursue a more hands-on project.
Senior says: “We decided there was a place in the market for another niche business in London and wanted to work for ourselves in a smaller environment. We were equally spread, offering South East and West End agency, investment and L&T. It was an interesting time to set up in 2009 – immediately after the Lehman Brothers crash – but a good time too because our overheads were very low. When recession hits, there are opportunities. People said we were brave, but in hindsight it was a really good time to do it.”
Since then, Hanover Green has transacted more than £2bn of investment property, let or acquired more than 7m sq ft, and reviewed and regeared 5.5m sq ft. The firm’s clients range from major UK and international funds to developers and anchor tenants using its services to establish their UK headquarters (see box).
Cuthbert attributes some of the company’s success to trying to spot trends before they become trends, so clients can harness the most current opportunities.
“Picking areas which are perhaps not mainstream office locations, or that may become mainstream is part of what we should do; we have had success in spotting new places. South Bank, the west London boroughs like Hammersmith and Ealing, and areas around Crossrail are all places where we have been doing stuff for a long time,” he says. “Our reputation is also important. We are only as good as the people who work here and if we let that down that is how businesses like ours go backwards.”
The firm does not restrict itself to only working in London, winning instructions in Newcastle and the Midlands.
Cuthbert says: “We are probably more aligned with some of the bigger firms than some of the smaller niche firms. We are not offering building surveying and management services but with offices, for example, we offer the same spectrum of services that they do and are joint agents with them more frequently than some of the smaller agents.”
What next for Hanover Green?
It is clear the company founders want it to stay independent. Senior believes that keeping its senior people on the ground, not managing from afar, gives them the edge over others in the industry.
Cuthbert adds: “We are well spread in terms of the disciplines we cover – L&T, lease advisory, investment and so on, and the geographical areas we work across. If you think about some of the businesses which have been sold or merged, they have been very niche in their markets – whereas we go all over the UK. That is part of the reason the equity also is spread widely. If it was held between one or two people the attraction of selling your firm is quite large. When it is spread liberally around the practice it becomes less interesting.”
The future still holds new opportunities, however. Senior explains he is looking forward to the next chapter in the company’s story, with its recent foray into the retail market.
Senior is optimistic about not just the company, but the people who build it. “We will continue to expand, but cautiously. We have invested in people, you take people on and they progress through the business and flourish, and that is an achievement in itself,” he says.
Key deals
Acquisition
Advised Aviva Investors on £65m purchase of Downing Plaza in Newcastle
Letting
Advised Resolution Property on letting of 65,000 sq ft at Ampersand, Wardour Street, WC1
Professional
Rent review and lease regear on 108,000 sq ft for Marks & Spencer at Stockley Park
Letting
70,000 sq ft at CEG’s reflex office building in Bracknell to Honda Motor Europe
Clients include
Aviva Investors, DTZ Investors, Land Securities, UBS, Sky, Stanhope
• To send feedback, e-mail shekha.vyas@estatesgazette.com or tweet @ShekhaV or @estatesgazette
