New name same faces

BESLEY Hill Estate Agents which has 15 offices throughout Gloucestershire, South Gloucestershire and Bristol has been taken over.

The group has been acquired by Hunters, one of the UK's leading estate agency franchise businesses, increasing the number of branches within their national network to over 200.

Besley Hill was founded over 40 years ago by Philip Besley and Robert Hill following the opening of the first office at Kingswood Bristol in 1976.

Since then growth has been mainly organic with expansion into Gloucestershire through the acquisition of local agency offices from Halifax Property Services.

Richard Mace Director of Besley Hill Dursley said "We are very excited and are really looking forward to the opportunity of working under the banner of Hunters!

"The message to home-owners of Dursley, Wotton Under Edge and Stroud is that the name above the door will change but the same experienced members of staff with continue to work within the offices, selling homes across the local area.

"This will be the fifth name change above our door, when I first came to Dursley 35 years ago we were Davis Champion and Payne and soon changed to Hartnell Taylor Cook. They were acquired by the Halifax and then Besley Hill took over the Halifax local network.

"We have gone from strength to strength and now sell the most property in the local area. We will continue to be the most experienced valuers working within the area but will now have the very latest technology and vast amounts of resources at our fingertips in order to provide the best possible customer service. You will soon see our 'for sale' and 'sold' boards change to the distinctive Hunters branding, but rest assured the faces in the branches remain the same.

"With nearly 100 years of combined experience in Dursley, our sales team have excellent local knowledge. We pride ourselves in delivering the best quality customer service and that is why a large percentage of our business comes from previous clients, professional contacts and other customer recommendations."