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Southern Homemove, which was set-up earlier this year, has closed five Davis Tate branches, just six months after acquiring the business from LSL.
Southern Homemove, which was only registered with Companies House in March this year, purchased 23 of LSL’s branches run by Goodfellows, Hawes & Co, Lauristons and Davis Tate, which covers the property market across Berkshire and Oxfordshire.
LSL announced soon after the deal was agreed with Southern Homemove in May that its remaining estate agency network of 183 branches would become franchises.
An update statement to the City from LSL on 10 May read: “As part of the steps taken to affect franchise agreements, these companies have been acquired by a new franchisee, Southern Homemove Limited, in return for a long-term royalties franchise agreement and de minimis consideration for assets transferred”.
Matthew Bates, joint managing director at Davis Tate, says that foollowing consultation with colleagues at Southern Homemove, he, and fellow joint MD, James Elliott, made the ‘strategic’ decision to close five Davis Tate branches, with the remaining seven offices remaining open.
The company has confirmed that five Davis Tate offices were closed last Monday – in Burghfield, Shinfield, Sonning Common, Didcot and Wantage.
Bates told EYE: “James [Elliott] and I undertook a strategic review of the business after the takeover from LSL earlier this year.
“We feel that while small branches do work, we have a better chance of competing in the market with larger, merged, branches.
Bates has confirmed that Southern Homemove has entered into discussions with affected colleagues and that they are “being offered opportunities elsewhere in the company”, primarily in the lettings division, after the decision was made to retain the entire lettings portfolio.
“We are invited all affected staff to apply to work in our lettings division, but we cannot rule out redundancies as there are simply not enough positions available for everyone affected by this change”.
Bates says that he is not aware of plans to close any of the offices operated by Goodfellows, Hawes & Co, or Lauristons.
“This was a decision made internally at Davis Tate,” he added.
EYE has approached Southern Homemove for comment.
This article was updated at 2.40pm.