Independent property consultancy Hartnell Taylor Cook has welcomed 32 new faces through the doors of its London and Bristol offices in the last year and its managing partner, Stuart Howell, insists the firm wants to add more.
Four senior hires who joined this month, read here, continued the company's response to growing demand for its services, according to Howell, who says the building consultancy and property asset management divisions of HTC have been particularly busy.
But he insists "you don't need to be big to compete" despite the dozens of appointments, explaining the company of 130 people has been very successful in securing repeat business from major names, such as retail giant Marks and Spencer and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, which reappointed HTC to its estate management services contract in September.
The managing partner spoke with CoStar News to discuss the company's bold recruitment strategy, how and where it wants to grow in the next year, and the benefits of continuing to operate as an independent.
What's behind the company's recruitment of 32 staff in the last year?
The last couple of years have been very good for us, we've been very busy and we have been growing. We have a 30 April year-end and in 2024 we were 14% up on the previous year [in turnover], and we already are ahead of that year [now], so the growth continues.
Being a service industry, we obviously need people to help us with servicing those instructions and servicing that growth, so the two run together.
We are 43% up on pre-pandemic [turnover] figures in the eight months to this year, [compared with] December 2019, so that gives you a feel of where we've come from and where we're going in terms of size and growth.
We had quite a lot of people join us last year, but it's really to service the growth that we are seeing across the business, particularly in consultancy.
We manage properties, we do all the things to those managed properties that you can imagine and so each service line is busy and getting involved with each client.
Where is the business experiencing the most growth?
Last year we structured our business so we have three sections. There's property asset management, or PAM, the transactional side and agency side, and then the building consultancy side.
It would be fair to say that the building consultancy and PAM, which go closest together, are the two areas growing the quickest at the moment.
They are the ones where we are seeing the most growth, so that is "sorting buildings out" [to put it] in layman's terms - managing them, refurbishing them, making sure they are compliant with all the new government legislation around Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards and more, so there is a lot of work to do.
But it's generally good across the board and we can't do the asset management work without the agency input, so we still run it as a business with all those multidisciplines ticking along nicely together.
What do you think is behind the company's growth and what clients are on your books?
We do our job properly [and make] long-term relationships. I think a lot of people like the independents because we are able to be flexible and agile to meet different clients' [needs].
Every client wants different things done differently and we are able to do that, so [it involves] jumping around a bit and making sure they're all happy. We always say, if we deliver a high level of service, there will be more work to do.
We're finding with our long-term relationships that we are getting renewals of contracts, including the Maritime & Coastguard Agency's Estate Management services contract, where our role is being expanded, as well as with M&S.
Those nationwide pieces are growing and keeping us really busy. That it is why it is critical for our London and Bristol offices to work together to make sure we get that nationwide service to those sorts of client.
How did you set about filling a large number of positions in such a short time?
We could see this coming and we went through a reasonably difficult time managing to secure people into all these slots.
We took a decision around a year ago to bring in an in-house recruiter, who helped with the sourcing. She understands our culture, she understands what we are trying to achieve.
We want to try and recruit the best and some of the people who have joined have come from some big firms and places where perhaps sometimes you wouldn't expect them to. So that's worked successfully for us.
We are down to about five or six vacancies now. While we will continue to add more people in 2025, I don't suspect it'll be quite as many as 2024, but we will still try and fill some holes and grow accordingly.
Your London office saw the largest growth of people proportionally – will you continue to grow the business there?
The strategy for the business in 2025 is to continue to grow and develop for our clients. We see more opportunity for growth in London because of how big it is, I guess, so [we want] more growth into London.
A lot of our Bristol work is from London-based clients and our London story is very, very impressive.
We are looking for professional surveyor in London, so that goes in the transactional pot.
We moved to Covent Garden last year... it feels good, it's a busy area, lots of restaurants and bars and I think that's helping the culture.
Can you explain the importance of the firm's independence?
We are very proud of our independence. I've been here a long time and clients like working with us because we are independent.
Our staff, like working for an independent company and there is no plan on changing. But we are aware of the market and who is talking, but we are cracking on as we are.
You don't need to be big to compete, that's what we say.
Our plan anticipates more people and more turnover.