Express & Star

Estate agents chain bought

A chain of estate agents with branches in Cannock, Stafford, Stone and Wolvehampton has changed hands.

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The branch in Darlington Street, Wolverhampton

butters john bee, which has previously been voted as the best national estate Agency of its size in the country, has been snapped up by another family-run business.

The agency, which has its head office in Festival Park, Stoke-on-Trent, is becoming part of the UK’s largest independent estate agency group Spicerhaart.

The price being paid for butters john bee, which has 19 branches mainly in Staffordshire, Shropshire and Cheshire, is not being disclosed.

bjb managing director James Beardmore said: “This is a very exciting time for us as it means we will be able to offer additional services to our customers and more career development opportunities, training and rewards to our 200 staff.”

bjb was founded in 1856 and will retain the name over the door of its offices including Darlington Street, Wolverhampton.

Both firms offer similar services, providing residential sales, lettings, conveyancing, surveying and financial services, while bjb also auctions residential properties and sells, lets and manages commercial property. Spicerhaart also offers corporate sales through its Blackpool office and has a land and new homes division.

Paul Smith, Spicerhaart’s chief executive and owner, said: “butters john bee is an extremely well run estate agency business and we are delighted to welcome the bjb team into our family. Both firms are award-winning and we will be sharing best practice across both organisations.

“As far as the customers and staff are concerned, it will be business as usual, but with additional telephone support outside normal working hours, from 8am until 10pm, for all our customers.

“We will also be introducing our highly successful ‘FLINK’ service, which enables more people to see properties for sale via social media. It’s amazing how many people go on to buy when they’re not even looking, just because they’ve seen the perfect property online.”

Spicerhaart has a long and successful track record of growing its business through acquisitions and now has 200 branches with 2,000 staff nationwide.

The company, which was founded in 1989 by Paul Smith and his father Alick, also operates haart, Darlows, Haybrook, Felicity J Lord and Chewton Rose.