Countrywide upheaval goes on - company says it will double in five years

Countrywide’s management restructuring continues apace with new changes aimed at “leveraging our combined sales and lettings offering through one cohesive retail team” according to an announcement from the company. 

The firm’s statement says: 

“In order to create a One Countrywide Retail team Sam Tyrer, Managing Director for Retail, has appointed three Divisional Managing Directors. These roles will be instrumental in bringing together the two businesses to create a seamless customer facing experience.

“In addition, three further key appointments have been created, Retail Commercial Director, Retail Programme Director and Retail Performance Director, reporting to Sam. These roles will enable us to quickly gain momentum in a competitive market place and assess areas to support and drive performance. 

“Also, 12 Retail Directors have been appointed for the North, Midlands and South, reporting into the three Divisional Managing Directors. With the restructure, the intention was to retain our strong industry expertise whilst at the same time providing our internal talent with a platform for growth and the Group is pleased to confirm this has been achieved.”

Michael Luck and Jonathan Simpson have been appointed as Divisional Managing Directors for the North and Midlands respectively - the MD for the South will be announced at a later date. 

Bruce Evans has been appointed Retail Commercial Director; Margaret Longden as Retail Programme Director; and Pete Wallace as Retail Performance Director.

The statement goes on:

“In Countrywide’s London business unit, which comprises 413 sales and letting operations trading in 264 branch locations under the overall leadership of London Managing Director Graham Bell, four Managing Director roles have been created to cover all market segments. As with the wider UK Retail Division, these newly appointed Managing Directors will have responsibility for both sales and lettings. 

“In line with this, Countrywide today announces the appointment of Lee Wainwright, Phil Tennant and Ben Taylor, each as Managing Director to the London business unit.  The further appointment of a Managing Director of Hamptons International will be made in due course.”

All the new roles are effective from November 1. One of the high-profile changes as a result of this is the retirement of Peter Young as managing director of John D Wood - a move that had been predicted in the industry for some time but only confirmed by Countrywide yesterday.

The company statement continues with a quote from Alison Platt, Countrywide Group chief executive: “[The] appointments mark another step forward for Countrywide as we build for our future. We have recognised the importance of ensuring the entire company is working together and by putting this regional and divisional structure in place, including bringing together responsibility for sales and lettings at a regional and local level for the first time, we believe we will be able to better serve our customers and deliver greater organic growth.”