Family franchise has grown every year since launch in 2014
Whitegates Macclesfield & Stoke on Trent celebrates latest acquisition
Chris Walthall, together with his son Dan and daughter Amy from Whitegates Macclesfield and Stoke on Trent, are celebrating an acquisition that has taken the lettings portfolio of their family business close to 600 managed properties. This is an amazing achievement, considering they built the business up from a standing start in 2014, and have grown it consistently by about 50 properties a year ever since.
Their latest acquisition comprised a lettings portfolio of 130 properties from neighbouring Belvoir Macclesfield. The owners had decided to retire and were looking for a business with a similar professional ethos to look after their clients. Whitegates ticked all the boxes.
We are delighted to have completed on this acquisition… They had done their research, liked our values and what we stood for, and thought we would be a good fit.
“The owners of Belvoir Macclesfield approached us some time ago to consider taking on their portfolio of 130 managed properties when they retired. They were a husband-and-wife team who cared deeply about their clients, and we are a family-oriented business with a great reputation. They had done their research, liked our values and what we stood for, and thought we would be a good fit.
“Whitegates Macclesfield and Stoke on Trent has an excellent name locally, and I think this is because everything that we do here, from our professional photography services to the inventories, is done in-house. My son Dan is a trained property photographer, and he and my daughter Amy are both large shareholders in the business. We consider the rest of our talented team to be very much part of the family. Our clients have always appreciated the fact that we are a family business, and that we have huge integrity and honesty, and utilise our individual skills and talents to best effect.
“Prior to becoming a franchisee, I had spent 35 years working in sales. I’d worked with many commercial businesses, and knew how they worked, and eventually I started to look for my own opportunity. I had four children and wanted to find something for me and my eldest son, who had health issues at the time, to do together. I went to a franchise exhibition at the NEC and in 2013 became one of the original people to buy a Ewemove franchise. Dan and I ran our new business from home and went on to build up a portfolio of 80 properties. In 2015 I was proud to become a Ewemove brand ambassador. In 2016 Ewemove was bought by The Property Franchise Group (TPFG).
“In 2018 Dan and I purchased the lettings book of 80 properties from Martin & Co Biddulph and we amalgamated it into our EweMove business. Early in 2020 we were then approached by Mark Askey who was the owner of Martin & Co Macclesfield, and we bought that business, which took the number of properties we managed to over 300. Mark still works with us today as our accountant and is a highly valued member of the team. I owned and ran Martin & Co Macclesfield with my daughter, Amy, whilst Dan ran our Ewemove branch.
Three years ago, we obtained permission from TPFG to combine the Ewemove and Martin & Co offices to create one business, so all three of us became Directors and shareholders of Whitegates Macclesfield & Stoke on Trent. We continued to build our portfolio to around 450 properties, and the Belvoir Macclesfield lettings portfolio has taken us to almost 600.
By my calculations we have taken on 50 properties a year, or one property a week, since we started, which is quite an achievement for a business that we started from scratch with very little money!
I would say that half of our clients are ones that we have nurtured, and the rest we have bought through acquisition. Most of our business comes from lettings, but we do some sales and have a team member with over 40 years of sales conveyancing experience who is brilliant at what she does. We have deliberately structured the business so that most of our business comes from lettings and covers our costs, whilst any sales are pure profit, which means we never have to worry about money.
My motto is, although I am the principal, everyone in our amazing team is more talented and smarter than I am. Nonetheless, it’s me that fully understands the business and is prepared to take the risks!
Benefits of being a franchisee
When it comes to being a franchisee, I feel that there are definite benefits. For example, we benefit from some great discounts. My portal costs are cut significantly - what independent agent could compete with that?
There are other benefits, such as help with compliance. Today the lettings industry is probably the most regulated in the UK and I can’t see how anyone starting a business from scratch could survive, as you could fall foul of the slightest little thing. Being part of TPFG means we get a lot of helpful guidance with things like the Renters’ Rights Bill etc. We also have access to a legal helpline, which is absolutely fantastic, and I believe there is one coming for HR and sales, which will be superb.
In addition, being part of Whitegates and TPFG has allowed me to operate from within a much bigger geographical area. The territory I have is probably one of the biggest in the UK - it is huge! We are not planning further acquisitions because we have a lot of organic growth in the pipeline. The Holy Grail is how do you acquire new landlords, well, the biggest source is recommendations from other landlords. It’s all about the long game. Recommendation and referral are free and it snowballs over time. Considering that we now have the best part of 600 managed properties in a business we built from scratch I do believe that is quite a success story and testimony to the professionalism and work of the team.