Ross & Liddell – the Property People - are set for further expansion

Today’s countrywide Ross & Liddell operation commands a salient position in Scottish property management, along with its strongly growing related fields of endeavour – for example building surveying, and residential and commercial letting.

The company owes at least some of its present-day capability to the long, steady process of assimilation of smaller companies and the subsequent reorganisation of their resources into a single, coherent entity.

However the real watershed years for the firm were the 70’s and early 80’s, when a combination of rigorously-maintained residual expertise finally combined with a critical mass of business to telling effect.

Then the establishment of our Edinburgh office eight years ago was a truly landmark event, happily pre-empting the rocketing demand for property and development opportunities in the capital which has so dominated the last few years.

The real strength of the company, I believe, has been its ability to target expansion to geographic areas and particular business sectors where its abilities and carefully-nurtured professional strengths can operate to maximum advantage.

The most recent example of this approach has been the opening of our new office in Dundee, which is a direct acknowledgement of the vibrancy of the property market on Tayside, generally, and of the overwhelming need in that region for a company which can operate effectively across several key disciplines.

With many thousands of properties on our books, and accelerating involvement in fields which include commercial and residential lets, people unfamiliar with the business are sometimes surprised that our entire operation, from Glasgow and Paisley to Edinburgh and Tayside, employs “only” about 100 people.

However in fact this represents a formidable body of expertise. Our approach has been to give each of the business areas in which we operate exactly the resources they need to flourish – in terms of ability as much as manpower - and to really develop business, not merely keep pace with the status quo.

I’m delighted by the calibre of the people we have chosen in a number of recent key appointments, and certain that our strengthened teams are going to help Ross & Liddell reap major dividends, both in terms of customer satisfaction and in winning new business.

In a number of cases we have been able to bring on board people who have first class track records from working in particular cities and regions.

R&L’s investment in internal communications logistics has been the other main strand in our onward development, allowing us to react decisively in all of our areas of responsibility.

Exactly the same approach allows us to develop consistently solid service values in our rapidly evolving surveying and letting operations. 

This allows separate but potentially complementary services to act together to full effect, and paves the way for steady expansion of R&L’s comprehensive portfolio of property services across the country.

The immediate future will see R&L continue on the same successful lines.  Our building surveying team will be concentrated in Glasgow, and our strengthened regional offices will act as hubs around which new business can develop.

With some 24,000 clients, and the critical mass of business which could inspire a move into markets south of the border, we shall nevertheless remain overwhelmingly a Scottish company, focused squarely on our Scottish interests.

Rather than growth for its own sake our next phase of expansion will centre on making our business as “sophisticated” as possible. We want R&L to become part and parcel of the fabric of everyday life for people with potentially wide ranging property management needs, both residential and commercial.

It is an exciting time for the company, and we have never been so fully prepared as now to make the most of emerging opportunities.

From innovative marketing to imaginative tailored packages of specialised services we are convinced we have both the strength and the expertise to take the firm another major step forward.

John Harris, Chairman, the Property People

ENDS

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