Former Countrywide directors join major independent agency

Two former directors of Countrywide have joined independent agency butters john bee.

Andy Townsend joins as managing director for Lettings and Dominic Green as managing director for Sales and Auctions.

Townsend was previously lettings director for Countrywide’s North Midlands letting brands including Frank Innes, Spencers, Dixons and Bairstow Eves. 

At butters john bee he will be responsible for growing the existing lettings operation and for acquisitions - the agency says he is already looking into potential deals in the Midlands and North West. 

Green worked at Countrywide for more than five years, joining as head of commercial finance before becoming finance director for Countrywide’s core estate agency operation, which made record profits of £28m in 2014. He also say on the estate agency board and was involved in Countrywide’s residential business strategy. 

He will now be in charge of growing butters john bee’s agency and auctions divisions, which includes 17 branches in Staffordshire, Cheshire, Shropshire and the West Midlands.

Butters john bee describes itself as the seventh largest auctioneer in the country and last year sold more than £52m of property. The agency’s sales and lettings network has seen openings in the past three years in Macclesfield, Cannock, Wolverhampton, Telford, Winsford and Northwich.

Earlier this year Bob Scarff, the head of Countrywide’s estate agency business until May 2015, became a non-executive director of butters john bee.