Spicerhaart boss admits aim of new operating model is to have ‘fewer branches’

Spicerhaart boss Paul Smith has revealed that the company’s home-working initiative is part of an overall plan to “move towards a new operating model covering the same markets more efficiently…with fewer physical branches”. The comment are made in the company’s latest published trading full-year trading results. These reveal the benefits of the new lower-cost, fewer branches strategy – including an 11% or £14.3 million reduction in operating costs last year. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, which like most other agencies within the industry hit its sales and surveying businesses hard, the seven-estate agency group has reported a profit before tax of £9 million compared to a loss in 2019 of £1.6 million. This is despite turnover dropping from £126.7 million in 2019 to £115.5 million last year, so the cost savings couldn’t have come at a better time. Branch reduction Spicerhaart insiders told The Negotiator in May last year that the company was planning a branch reduction exercise, something the company would not comment on at the time. It subsequently launched its ‘hub and home office’ operation which it has been rolling out across the UK since the housing market reopened after the first lockdown. Introduced in existing as…