The magazine Property Week is reporting that Countrywide’s former chief executive Alison Platt, who quit her post this morning, will receive a £675,000 pay-off.
In something of a coup, the magazine secured an interview with Countrywide group chairman Peter Long in which he makes “a damning attack” on Platt for failing to deliver on her promise to stem losses in market share to rivals.
This came to a head after a management reorganisation last summer - following the departure of ‘retail’ director Sam Tyrer - in which Platt assumed greater personal responsibility for the sales and lettings divisions.
“In the middle of last year Alison made herself responsible for the sales and lettings side of the business, but the situation was the business was not delivering on what was anticipated,” Long has told Property Week.
Long confirmed Platt would receive a payoff, stating: “She will be paid according to standard contract terms, plus pension contribution. That means she will receive £675,000.”
Earlier today Estate Agent Today received a copy of a note sent to Countrywide staff by Long, pledging to empower branches to win back lost market share and revealing a new management structure to take the company through the short term. You can see those details here.
The Property Week story is behind a paywall, here.
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More fool Countrywide for agreeing the employment contract with AP. In an industry that thrives on rewards for success, negs and managers don't get bonuses if the branch doesn't do well, so why should business be any different.
This is blatant do as I say, not as I do.
AP - an opening with New York Purple Bricks , perhaps?
The board as a whole need to take responsibility Mr Long, I'm assuming the board knew the strategy, confirmed their backing and knew of the trading position, good of Ms Platt to take the can and act as scape goat, ......
£675,000! Now she has got the share value down to a £1 a share she would be well placed to stick her money into the company, after all it can only go up now.
James i wouldstill take a short on the share price mate
You could put Alan Greenspan in charge and it wouldn't make one shred of difference, the Estate Agency and Property Management business model is fundamentally broken and the likes of Countrywide will end up having to shut hundreds of branches and lose hundreds of staff within the next year. Mostly of course thanks to the complete and utter fraud that is Purple Bricks etc that have driven fees down to an all time low, coupled with far less people moving house. I wonder when the PB Investors will ever get their money back !! The rest of it is just utter rubbish.
Ha Ha Ha! £675k for ruining a business and driving its market cap practically subterranean.
On a serious note; what about taking ‘even more’ out of a business that you have ruined with your totally inept management. You couldn’t put this in a book; it’s too ficticious!
Add Carillion and BHS to that book?
I beg to differ. Carillon and even BHS were businesses of greater complexity than Agency. Ours is a ‘cottage imdustry’ where all you have to do is persuade your client that you will deliver a better service than your competitor and work hard to meet and exceed their expectations. Then; justify what you want to charge and why then, deliver on your promises. A people business in the purest sense of those words; in my humble opinion, that is. I render this opinion based upon running an agency that produced in excess of a 40% return on income from fees of in excess of £1.4m from a single office.
The principle is the same. Just make for a larger book!
How very dare you Mr. Long! Most of the staff have never heard about you before today or indeed even met you, the moment AP has gone you now decide that CW need to re-focus, for your information we at the “coal face” have been nothing but focused it is the likes of you and the rest of the senior management that should have been focused some three years ago but no you did diddlysquat! Nobody can recall you or any other senior manager saying anything remotely like this before today! Staff at branch level having being saying this since the day AP was appointed (particularly after meeting her) and as a consequence were a) managed out b) told by senior management “yes you are quite right but we are going to have to be quiet, keep our own counsel and wait until AP has gone (which will be any day or the next day or…) as we are not prepared to speak out otherwise we will also lose our jobs” c) “Don’t be silly she knows what she is doing so let’s all believe the fake news and ridiculous rhetoric as it must make sense?”
How can AP with a straight face or with any level of integrity take this money? This is just another example of what this country has become and the injustices we all see on a daily basis. Even now she can’t accept any responsibility, she is still coming out with “fake news “that we have all had to put up with for years, I have not met one other person within CW at ANY level that had ONE good word to say about her or her “strategy” after actually meeting her that understand the business, in her defence that were some within the company that would not agree this, which speaks volumes for the predicament we are now in. AP and the rest of the senior team have very nearly destroyed a once great company that was market leader in several sectors of the property business whilst the entire senior management sat there and nodded their heads at her, these same people have the audacity to think we are going to accept them as our new leaders? You’re now saying we need to re-focus! No what WE need is for you all to sod off and be replaced by people that we know of and can actually trust to lead us out of this mess YOU assisted in creating, take your fat cheques and the let real workers to get us out of this…..
I sense genuine outrage here, plus passion to put things right. Sadly AP is not alone and innumerable once great companies have been destroyed in an eerily similar way over the years and no doubt there will be countless more in the future. I have two questions though, why do you care so much and why not leave? There is an unlimited demand for good people out there and a very limited supply, many have already voted with their feet and I have to say if I was working there I would have been one of the first to leave.
What is it about senior management Tabatha they feel in this day and age they can ride rough shod over the guys working so hard at the coal face-bark orders,ask for form after form after form to be completed for no real reason- and still expect then to embrace a nodding dog mentality.What ever happened to respect by inspiration and motivation coming from the top leadership-leadership that have worked for decades in the business and have been on valuations/viewings and tied up hundreds if not thousands of deals. That is what is needed here-and to be honest in all the Corporate Agencies of late-who continue to ignore the changes in our industry as much as Platt did. They will I am sure pay the price.
Independent agents who allow a branch manger who is competent to run the business as their own and are paid the right £ for that responsibility have a very real opportunity to grow market share at the expense of the "big boys",they can offer true excellent customer service but then believe they can charge a decent fee that reelects the amount of hard work it takes to get maximum value for the customer.Or is this just to simple ?
It's so pleasing to read that she will get a big pay off whilst hardworking "normal" waged countrywide staff are not getting a bonus this year. How she can pocket that money is a disgrace. She talked about integrity oh the irony
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