Six Douglas Allen branches close in shift to ‘super hubs’

Arun Estates has unveiled plans to close six Douglas Allen branches as it moves agents in the East London region to a ‘super hubs’ model.

Aldo Sotgiu, group managing director of Arun Estates, has claimed there are currently no redundancies planned as part of the changes, which are focused on East London and Essex.

A statement from Arun Estates said six of the existing Douglas Allen offices in the East London area will become “virtual spokes” feeding into the super hubs with a number of staff from the existing network being transferred to one of the three super hubs in Woodford Green, Walthamstow and Chadwell Heath.

Staff will be relocated to the new hub model, within Douglas Allen or offered opportunities within the Arun Estates network.

Sotgiu highlighted that this strategy has already been applied successfully in  the Brighton Cubitt & West network, adding: “This will provide a massive opportunity for growth within the hubs whilst, at the same time, providing a more efficient way of operating the business within East London where we have a high density of offices working in close proximity.

“The new hub model was a good fit for that particular part of our business and there are no plans to apply the hub model in other parts of Douglas Allen and Arun Estates’ overall business strategy remains a modern, traditional high street operation.

“Indeed, we have an appetite for expansion should the right strategic opportunities arise, with particular interest to add to the two recent lettings acquisitions we have made.”