Kings Group, Tottenham
The Story So Far
Two entrepreneurs, Thomas Paine and Karl Knipe, formed Kings in Enfield Town in 1991, with big dreams, big plans and bags of enthusiasm. What could possibly go wrong?
Well the market promptly collapsed!
So as it transpired, it was their enthusiasm that was to prove their most valuable asset, as many companies, particularly new starts, fell by the way side in the early 90’s. Kings in fact managed to hold their own in this climate and even expanded with a second office opening in Enfield Highway in 1993.
Come 1994, while progress was still being made, it remained a very testing time. However, for Kings, this was not a barrier to their expansion plans, and with usual aplomb they rose to the challenge, and remained focused on their expansion plans.
With the upward turn in the market in the mid 90’s, came the opening of 2 further offices, in Cheshunt and Edmonton, thus spreading the Kings net ever wider, pushing into the differing markets of Hertfordshire and North London. This saw them take an additional Partner in Steven Celimon, an experienced and proven Estate Agent.
Almost overnight Kings found themselves in a position to grow, with the personnel to make it happen.
1999 saw further expansion, now into Essex with the opening of the Church Langley office, a venture which has proven to be as successful as the earlier offices, with Kings being the only Estate Agent based in the "new town".
More new offices came along in 2002, with Harlow Town and Walthamstow. This gave further coverage into Essex, and Kings’ first office in the East London Postcodes. The latest acquisition is the Tottenham Office, which opened it’s doors in 2003, and has provided a link between Edmonton and Walthamstow.
As the expansion in estate agency offices accelerated it became logical to add other property based dimensions to the business. Lettings was a natural progression and so the first of 3 branches we currently have opened above our Edmonton Sales Office in 2000. Harlow came next and Tottenham followed in 2004. We run our lettings branches as totally separate entities to our Sales offices so that clients are dealt with by experts in one field or another not 'jacks of all trades'. The lettings offices all sit alongside, above or within estate agency locations to maximise the applicant bases and make life easier for clientele. The addition of Property Management, has consolidated Kings Lettings as one of the premier letting agents locally.
Mortgages have been another obvious aside for Estate Agency chains. Offering the client the convenience of keeping the process under one roof, available hours that would terrify your average lender and with the opportunity to be independent in relation to which lenders we recommend has meant that a broker is kept very busy in each of our 8 offices. On top of this we have grown a client bank of many thousands of people, over the years, whom we've helped in one way, shape or form. They are then looked after by our client servicing team who build relationships for financial advise with customers that lasts for many years.
Conveyancing came next, with us establishing the brand KINGS CONVEYANCING to handle the legalities of sales, purchases and remortgages.
At a similar time we took a 50% stake in a survey business, Metropolis Surveyors, that mortgage lenders use to carry out all types of surveys not only in the Kings heartlands but through out most of London and the Home Counties.
The Kings Operation is run from two head offices, one in Cheshunt and another in Goffs Oak, where dedicated administrative teams try to ensure the smooth running of all areas of the business. With the Kings payroll number just short of 100 people you can imagine the importance of the organisational skill of these individuals.
In all our businesses we genuinely strive to offer a level of service that would separate us from our competitors. We don't always get it right, it would be naive to say so but in industries where the public perception is not good before you start, this is not always easy. However, the morals of the Partners are very firmly set on running an ethical, hard working, motivated, ambitious workforce that continues to expand our brand. This can only be achieved if we maintain the highest possible standards, own up to our mistakes and never stop learning.
Kings reputation has become synonymous with the latest available technology and aggressive advertising and marketing campaigns while retaining a level of service generally lacking in the industry as a whole.
With further expansion of all their businesses planned along with ventures in to new areas in the pipeline, the Kings bandwagon, it is hoped, will keep on rolling.
Finally, 2005 saw Kings Group LLP attaining recognition in The Sunday Times Best Small Companies to work for!