Your move and Reeds Rains branch cull helps triple estate agency profits at parent company
Reduction from 308 to 144 owned Your Move and Reeds Rains branches helps boost profits across LSL's overall agency network.
LSL has revealed that the massive reduction in branch numbers announced in February is beginning to bear fruit with improving profits and revenues at its remaining ‘keystone’ branches.
The company has been busy reducing its number of Your Move and Reeds Rains offices from 308 to 144 hub operations, a process that it says is progressing “in line with its expectations”.
But despite this, total estate agency revenue at LSL dropped by 13% from £88.9 million during the first six months of 2018 to £77.1 million during the first half of this year, although profits nearly tripled from £1.4 million to £4 million year-on-year.
These figures cover its entire estate agency network which also includes Marsh & Parsons, Frosts, Goodfellows, David Tate, Lauristons, Hawes & Co and Thomas Morris.
“Due to the support, hard work and commitment of all our colleagues, we have successfully come through a challenging period to ensure that our Your Move and Reeds Rains branch networks are now trading well,” says Helen Buck (left), its Executive Director of Estate Agency.
Reshaping
“We are pleased that the reshaping of the Your move and Reeds Rains branch networks has progressed in-line with our expectations despite the scale and complexity of the project. As a result, the revenue in the keystone branch network in H1 was slightly ahead of the LSL business plan, says LSL CEO Ian Crabb (above)
“We expect the changes to the Your Move and Reeds Rains branch networks to continue to deliver a material improvement to Underlying Operating Profit in Your Move and Reeds Rains, assuming no material change in market conditions.”
Income from its surveying division increased by 37% year-on-year although profits reduced by £2.3 million after it took on a large number of Lloyds staff. Income at its financial services division increased by 4% but profits jumped by 20% following several acquisitions.
Read more about the branch closures.