The last time Estates Gazette visited New-castle-based Lamb & Edge, head of agency Michael Cuthbertson was a happy man. The local practice had just gone up against the big boys and won a three-year contract for all Newcastle Airport’s property work.
Now, more than six months into the contract, Cuthbertson says: “It has been a steep learning curve. We have had to assess the airport’s in-house systems in order to advise on how they might be improved.” A “manual terrier system”, for example, is to be put on to a live estate management system that will be fully integrated with the airport’s financial systems and operate through an online link between Lamb & Edge and the airport. L&E already operates a similar set-up with the Crown Marine Estate.
The airport itself has seen a dramatic increase in passengers with the introduction of easyJet and Ryanair flights. Last year, almost 4m passengers used the airport to get to such destinations as Barcelona, Malaga, Prague and Copenhagen.
The newly rebranded Newcastle airport has also modernised its management style. Cuthbertson says: “For us it is an exciting time to be involved. The day-to-day estate management work is going well and we are in the middle of marketing a development site at the main entrance to the airport. In addition, we are working with the airport on a masterplan that will identify further development opportunities.”
In order to satisfy this and other new contracts, Lamb & Edge has been recruiting staff with wide-ranging experience. To the less-experienced end of the scale comes a new graduate, Megan Spence. Spence worked for Lamb & Edge during her year out from Northumbria University. And, in response to the increasing amount of compulsory purchase work being taken on, the practice has brought in Mike Mason from the district valuer’s office, where he held a very senior role dealing with compulsory purchase. Cuthbertson says: “CPO will, in our view, be increasingly important, particularly to de-liver regeneration, but it has not been used a great deal in the past 10-15 years. Mike is 60 and brings a wealth of experience.”
Other new work includes a partnership with Stockton council in which Lamb & Edge will act as an add-on to its estates department one of the first of many arrangements. The practice was an obvious choice because it already does development work. Cuthbertson says: “We can bring a high level of market awareness to the council’s portfolio.”
L&E is hoping for a place on Tees Valley Regeneration’s (Tees Valley’s urban regeneration company) panel.
The practice has also just taken over the management of Newcastle’s largest business park. Developed by Dysart Developments during the 1990s, Newcastle Business Park comprises 66,200m2 (712,500 sq ft) of office buildings on more than 60 acres with occupiers including AA, BA, O2, IBM, WSP and ICL. L&E has also snapped up large clients from national players (see box).
Cross-selling services one of L&E’s areas of interest when it last spoke to EG are going well. Cuthbertson says: “Our most recent addition, building consultancy, has been the main beneficiary, showing significant growth. It should not be long before other areas of the business are getting referrals from building consultancy.”
On the marketing front, Lamb & Edge went to its first exhibition this past October, taking a stand at Business North East at Newcastle Arena. Cuthbertson says: “Although we feel it was a worthwhile exercise from a public relations point of view, live leads were hard to find. I don’t think we’ll do it again, but we may do smaller, more property-oriented exhibitions. We have switched our corporate advertising budget to the web.”
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On our first visit to Lamb & Edge in April 2003, senior partner Peter Smith acknowledged the frustration of losing traditional areas of work, such as property management, to single global contracts, dealt with by the ever-increasing number of national agents now found in Newcastle. He also said: “Some of the work has a habit of finding its way back to us.” The firm faces the national coverage of King Sturge, GVA Grimley and Lambert Smith Hampton. And, recently, one of the larger local practices, Sandersons, merged with Weatheralls, leaving Lamb & Edge out on a limb as one of only two large independents left in Newcastle, with Storey Sons & Parker. Cuthbertson remains reticent about L&E’s position: “Competition from the nationals has not had a significant effect on us, because we fill a niche in the regional market. Our business is more about people than corporate profiles and we have a team of experienced surveyors offering specialist expertise in key sectors of the market. We have strong and loyal clients to whom we offer a high level of service.” Nevertheless, complacency is not on the cards. He says: “We are looking over our shoulder at the competition and this keeps us on our toes,” adding: “To be honest, the new firms in town are not full of new faces, because they have been recruited from other firms in the city. Furthermore, a proportion of the work they are doing was already theirs and was being serviced from Leeds or Manchester.” Continuing to win contracts such as Newcastle Business Park is proof that specialised local knowledge can often be an advantage over a national name. Lamb & Edge has always expanded into new areas organically, unaided by business plans. Cuthbertson says: “We have not changed our focus in terms of the sectors in which we operate. We will continue to review opportunities but we are often led by the availability of key staff. |
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Turnover was £2.2m last year and on our last visit Lamb & Edge expected to see this figure rise by 8-10%. Michael Cuthbertson, head of agency, says: “Turnover did increase by almost 10%. However, profitability was hit by increasing professional indemnity insurance premiums. This is a matter of concern to many smaller practices, where we have heard of increases up to 400%. In recent months, we have seen that other insurers are looking at providing PI cover and offering more attractive premiums for the same level of cover. Consequently, we are confident that our own PI costs will fall again.” |
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● Over the past six months, owing to the influx of new management work, Lamb & Edge has identified the need to hire a commercially minded management surveyor. ● The practice intends to use its experience in partnering at Stockton council to roll out the concept with other local authorities. ● It will also revamp its website, www.lambedge.co.uk |
