Surveyor expands into South West with new office opening

A chartered surveyor firm has opened its twelfth office in the UK in Dorset.

Bruton Knowles has  opened its second new office this year due to significant growth in the business.

The new office in Wimborne will be the base for the newly formed national utilities and infrastructure team for the south.

Gillian Froud has recently taken over from Bill Simms, who has retired as head of southern region utilities and infrastructure.

She continues to build a team of specialists to service the growing client base in the southern region with 16 new recruits over the last few months.

Gillian had spent 19 years in her previous position as associate director at Savills within the strategic projects team – first working in the finance team for national homes, before moving on to telecoms and renewable energy projects, and then leading a specialist team of over 20 staff.

Her move to Bruton Knowles prompted a number of key specialists in her previous team to follow her.

Now the team, has grown to eight staff members with more expected in the next few months.

The national utilities and infrastructure teams are now estimated to account for over 40 per cent of the firm’s income.

Gillian said: “Having joined Bruton Knowles at the start of 2023, I have invested a great deal of time in getting to know the wider business team and developing relationships with key customers and also bringing on board a number of new clients.

“Our new Wimborne base is key to further development in the South-West and gives us close proximity to a new client base for on the doorstep service – all part of our commitment to deliver our customary high-quality service.”

James Bailey, managing partner at Bruton Knowles, added: “Our growth plans for the business, and our U&I national teams in particular, have had to be accelerated because we were in a position to secure just the right key specialist staff members to lead the charge and the interest from new business prospects.

“Now, we are making sure that they have the structure and environment in place to support them including a dedicated location, to emphasise that their presence is most definitely long-term.”

The opening of the new Wimborne office, follows that of a new Taunton base, and announcements regarding the appointment of additional key staff and other new offices plans are expected in the coming weeks.