Interview With Spencer Gilbert

This week we talked to Spencer Gilbert, Managing Director of Gilbert and Rose.

Gilbert and Rose is one of the major players on the Essex estate agency scene with a really fresh and energetic approach to estate agency, something which really came across from Spencer in the interview.

They recently completed the acquisition of Bradleys Countrywide, one of the UK’s leading business transfer and commercial estate agents.

We wanted to hear about Spencer’s experience as they went through the process of their first acquisition, and how he was feeling about it now. His excitement certainly shone through, as did his absolute passion for developing and getting the best from, and for, all the people across their growing business.

Talk to us about your decision to acquire and grow

We’re laser-focussed on growing our agency and the lettings side of our business helps safeguard the future, so when we found out about Bradleys and the opportunity to purchase, it was a no-brainer for us.

It just so happened that it came with the addition of commercial and business transfer as well, which was something we had been looking to go into for a while.

How did you make sure that this was the right business for you?

We believe that we can add a lot of value to most businesses because we’re tech-savvy and great with marketing. With this skillset we believe we can acquire other businesses and add to them, particularly those businesses which are dissimilar to us.

Talk you us about the relationship with Atomic and how you came to appoint them?

We met Lucy Noonan at the FIA presentation and straightaway we thought we would love to work with her and her team.

She’s a great person to work with; not corporate, always a friendly face, makes you feel welcome all the time.

She’s just the perfect fit for us.

So, when the opportunity to acquire arose, we decided we should reach out to her, to see how she could help and what it would cost. We already had an existing relationship with the owner of Bradleys, so initially, I actually didn’t feel like we needed help from a brokerage, I felt that we could do it ourselves, but decided to speak to Atomic for a little advice anyway.

I’m so glad we did! When I look back now, I’m not sure how I thought we could do this alone. Buying a business is a minefield.

If you don’t do it day in and day out, there is no way you could know everything, because there’s so much involved. So, we instructed Atomic, and they consulted throughout the entire process.

Lucy and her team paid for themselves straight away, just on the negotiation of the price, never mind the invaluable support and help in getting us to the place we are now. Throughout the process, we built an amazing relationship and I class Lucy as a friend now, I can’t recommend her highly enough.

So how did Atomic support you through the process?

They were there at every step; always on the other end of the line, attending client meetings, advising on legals and helping support the team, which is probably where we would have gone really wrong without the expert guidance.

We are more “let’s just do it” and Lucy is more “definitely don’t do that!”, telling us to slow down and follow the correct processes. Lucy was there to literally support the entire journey.

Not just at sale, but throughout integration with the team, with admin, follow-ups, even when we were onboarding, keeping us on track from a HR and TUPE angle. We definitely couldn’t have done it without Atomic!

What advice would you give to anybody else going through this process?

To anyone in the future considering buying a business, I’d say be realistic.

It’s a world you don’t know. You may think you know it because you’re buying within your own industry, but it’s different when you are doing B2B rather than B2C so you really need to know what you’re talking about.

Perry and I also underestimated the amount of emotion that was involved in the transaction.

These team members you acquire don’t choose to work for you, and as much as we love our business and know how awesome it is, they don’t yet know that.

The transition can be a real challenge for them and that’s where expert support from Lucy and the team made all the difference to them and to us.  

So, what’s next for Gilbert and Rose?

For us now the big thing is to make sure we fully utilise what we’ve bought and develop the team that have come across.

They are absolutely fantastic, and if anything, at the time we didn’t realise the skills that were coming over.

But now having these new skills added to Gilbert and Rose is a huge step forward.

The team are amazing, so now we want to help them grow, develop and earn good money so they can live the lives that they want to live, in an industry that is tough.