Burton upon Trent

Belvoir continues selling its HQ-owned branches to franchisees

Franchise agency network Belvoir has sold the latest of its HQ-owned offices following the announcement last year that it would try and dispose of “most of [our] remaining corporate-owned offices to enable the group to further focus its resources on its franchise business”. The first to be sold this year is its Burton upon Trent office in East Staffordshire, which has been snapped up by a neighbouring franchisee with existing branches in Hinkley and Tamworth. Previous ‘corporate’ offices sold last year include Basingstoke (sales) in Berkshire, Lichfield in the West Midlands, London Central and Tadley in Hampshire. The corporate offices already sold or targeted for sale are the remaining branches of the business originally set up by founders Mike and Stephanie Goddard during the 1990s as a traditional letting agency, before the company began offering franchises. The company now has over 301 branches including 86 from the recent acquisition of competing franchisee agent Northwood. The rest of the network’s outlets including 170 via Belvoir franchisees and 14 from Goodchilds and 31 from Newton Fallowell. Belvoir says it plans to sell three of the remaining Belvoir corporate offices but retain two – both in its home town of Grantham – for system development…