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Countrywide league bash celebrates staff success

More than 400 Countrywide agents gathered to celebrate their success over the last year at the group’s Chairman’s League Awards. Clare Bettelley reports.

Taylors in Milton Keynes scooped the top prize at Countywide’s Chairman’s League Awards ceremony late last month.

The Central Milton Keynes-based team received the Overall Top Countrywide Estate Agency Branch award in the premier league, with Bairstow Eves in Battersea named Overall Top Countrywide Estate Agency Branch in the first division.

Pete Wallace, managing director of Taylors, says: “The key to our success is believing that the fundamentals of home buying haven’t changed.

“There is no magic solution – estate agency is still the same; if you can get the customer though the door, then look after them so they won’t have any reason to seek the services of another agent.”

Hetheringtons in Theydon Bois was named Overall Top Countrywide Branch in the second division.

Double celebration

More than 400 of Countrywide’s top achievers from 1,200 offices across the country gathered to celebrate their success last month.

The group hosted two Formula 1 themed-ceremonies, one for Countrywide Estate Agents, together with the group’s top mortgage consultants and land and new homes team, at the RBS Williams F1 Conference Centre. Countrywide Residential Lettings celebrated at Towcester, Northamptonshire-based Whittlebury Hall Hotel.

Countrywide staff competed for 111 awards across the two events during the year-long competition, with awards presented to successful agents, branches, managing directors and support staff.

Robert Scarff, managing director of Countrywide Estate Agents, says: “Last year was a fantastic year for us, with the second half enjoying tremendous success and market share growth.”

The events followed Countrywide’s acquisition of Sotheby’s International Realty. As The Negotiator reported last month, the deal includes the 266-year old auction house’s Mayfair-based franchise office in addition to an exclusive agreement with which Countrywide plans to grow the 500-office network across the UK and in the Channel Islands.

Regional players

Hampshire-based Morris Dibben scooped the top award for Countrywide subsidiary with less than 24 branches, with Taylors East winning the Top Countrywide subsidiary with more than 25 branches award.

Slater Hogg & Howison Newton Mearns won the award for Best Branch in Scotland, with the Best Branch in London & South East in league one being presented to Bairstow Eves in Battersea.

The award for Best Branch in London & South East in league two was presented to Gascoigne Pees in Hinchley Wood, with the brand’s Guildford office winning the Best Branch in the South award in league one.

Morris Dibben scooped its second award of the event when its Hayling Island branch was named Best Branch in the South in league two. Frank Innes also scooped two consecutive awards, one for Best Branch in Central England in league one, which was presented to Frank Innes West Bridgfords, and one for Best Branch in Central England in league two, which was presented to Frank Innes Long Eaton.

Lettings

John D Wood’s Fulham team (pictured) scooped the Overall Best CRL Branch award. CRL regional manager Graham Harrison says: “The branch has an excellent  manager and negotiators. Further, it is slightly more of a local branch that offers an outstanding speed of service and is particularly proactive with, for example, landlords’ void periods.”

CRL’s most improved branches include Glasgow,  Ashton Burkinshaw in Stockton Heath in Sevenoaks, Bairstow Eves in Nottingham and Palmer Snell in Westbourne.

Countrywide Managing Agents’ Southend branch was named winner of the managing agency division award category.

Prestige

Countrywide Estate Agents awarded nine of its top overall winners with an additional prize at its ceremony. The winners, which include top branch, regional and managing directors and the overall winning mortgage consultant, were invited to attend an exclusive event at Mayfair’s Claridges Hotel to celebrate their success. Their treat will include five-star accommodation and a black tie dinner in a private dining suite at the hotel next month.

Inspiration

This is the second year that the Countrywide Chairman’s League Awards have been held since the death of Countrywide Residential Lettings negotiator Jake Hubbard.

As The Negotiator reported at the time, Hubbard lost his battle with Cystic Fibrosis in January 2009 at just 30 years of age. Countrywide has since introduced a special award created in his memory.

Kerry Tipper was awarded The Jake Hubbard Award for her dedication and commitment to delivering training for a completely new back office system, which according to Leon Betchley, CRL regional director for the South East and founder of the award, demonstrated key qualities reflected in Hubbard’s personality.

Betchley says: “The recipient each year of The Jake Hubbard Award is indeed a truly special and unique individual. Kerry has been working on CRL’s new back office system PropCo for two to three years, and whilst she has not been alone in her commitment to the project, she has taken on extra responsibility as the roll out progressed, along with the continued development of the system.”

He adds: “This award is named after someone who always stayed positive, spread enthusiasm and showed commitment to their job. This year’s winner is an individual who embarks upon every challenge with a positive and can-do attitude, and fills a room and any project that she is working on with enormous enthusiasm and passion. She has put in painstaking hours in checking and re-checking the PropCo system, and has had the patience of a Saint.”

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