Ex-Countrywide figures emerge in roles at rival companies

More former Countrywide figures have emerged in new roles at rival organisations.

Darren Bowles, former regional sales manager at Countrywide’s Bridgfords brand, has joined the lead control PropTech firm Callwell, joining another refugee, former Countrywide estate agency managing director Bob Scarff.

Scarff, now Callwell’s chairman, says of the new recruit: “I have known Darren for many years as we both used to work at the same estate agency. His tenacity, care for the customer and his boundless enthusiasm make him the ideal person to ensure that Callwell customers continue to enjoy success from turning emails into phone calls.”

Meanwhile hybrid agency EweMove, in the news earlier this year when its two founders announced they were parting company with the brand, says it has recruited agents from unspecified Countrywide agencies and from the group’s high-end Hamptons International operation.

EweMove, now owned by the Property Franchise Group - aka Martin & Co - earlier this year launched a drive to offer cut-price franchises to existing no sale, no fee agents. 

In its publicity announcement over the weekend EweMove quoted Mark Holmes, an ex-Countrywide Gascoigne-Pees agent and now owner of EweMove Basingstoke, as earning over £18,000 of commission income in his first month with the hybrid. 

“A customer being able to speak to someone 24 hours a day, seven days a week and book a valuation online, to an agent who works with innovative cloud-based software, EweMove is truly embracing technology to its fullest – absolutely the way that the industry is heading and I’m delighted to have made the decision to join” Holmes says in the publicity material.