Auction team bids to make a big impact with launch
A team of experienced professionals are behind the launch of a new property auctions business that has ambitions to disrupt the Midlands market.
Bond Wolfe Auctions has been created by property consultancy Bond Wolfe and will be led by chief executive Gurpreet Bassi and managing director Ian Tudor.
Bond Wolfe was co-founded by Gurpreet’s uncle, Paul Bassi, in 1983 and he remains non-executive chairman of the business. Bond Wolfe’s managing director James Mattin is a director and shareholder of the new auctions business.
Gurpreet Bassi and Ian Tudor were both at CP Bigwood when it was bought by Nottingham-based SDL in 2016, with Bassi becoming head of residential and Tudor head of commercial auctions at the SDL Auctions Bigwood’s business.
They are among at least 10 staff who left SDL’s Birmingham office in the final months of 2018, many of whom had been part of the Bigwood team. A spokesperson for SDL described the departures as “regretful”.
The Bond Wolfe Auctions team plans to have an impact across the Midlands.
Bassi said: “We are going to be a national auctions business, although two of our core areas will be the West and East Midlands regions.”
The new business will be based in three offices – Birmingham’s Colmore Row, West Bromwich and Wolverhampton – will have 15 staff by the end of March.
Bassi said: “We will hold six auctions in our first year and we are looking forward to a strong start in March when we hold our first auction of 2019.
“Our award winning and record-breaking team have over 200 years’ experience of the property auction sector and our track record together with our established business network is unrivalled. We are delighted to have an opportunity to create such a vibrant business from day one.”
Its first auction in nine weeks’ time will have residential, commercial, mixed use properties and land from throughout the UK.
Tudor believes the diverse range of properties “will have a real appeal to both vendors and purchasers”.
He added: “With our ‘traditional values, modern solutions’ approach, we are delighted to be able to offer our clients, old and new, highly professional, focused and bespoke auction advice whatever their asset.”
13 of the SDL Auctions team have left the business since late September:
