Major estate agency acquires high street division from Midlands firm
Property agency and management firm Centrick has announced the sale of its high street sales and lettings business.
The division has been acquired by the Lomond Group and will operate under its John Shepherd brand, resulting in the transfer of 25 staff in Nottingham, Solihull and Birmingham to the purchaser.
Staff will add to Lomond’s workforce of 1,100 people across a network of 12 brands which manage more than 40,000 properties.
Centrick, which was founded in 2005, says the decision to move away from its high street estate and lettings agency is in order to focus on delivering property management and services to the residential sector.
It’s making a £1m investment in technology to do so, as well as creating a 3,500 sq ft ‘Centrick Academy’ – a dedicated training facility aimed at growing grass-roots talent and raising technical ability and service standards for Centrick staff and the wider property management community.
The building and estate management division, RICS valuation services and the PRS asset management division is said to have seen exponential growth and will continue to operate from its HQ in central Birmingham as well as offices in Manchester, Sheffield, London and Hampshire.
Centrick founder James Ackrill said: “Our ambition as a group has always been to deliver a truly exceptional service, building a team of highly skilled property professionals that care about our clients and the residents we support.
“We recognise the need for focus and depth in our specialisms in order to deliver on our long-term plans and commitment to clients today, as well as into the future. This move puts the group in a really strong position to focus consistently on those specialisms and continue to enhance our already high service levels, aligning our teams around the needs of our clients.
“Our high street agency has always been extremely successful, holding numerous awards and top positions in a number of areas, driven by incredible property professionals. We are grateful and genuinely thankful to all the people that have been part of the Centrick family.
“All of the Centrick high street agency team will be transferring to John Shepherd who have a long and trusted history. This means that all of our high street clients will continue to be looked after by the people they already know and trust without any loss of service”.
