Back where the success began

Press, 27 January 1988, Page 24

Back where the success began

This is Harcourts Real Estate’s centenary year — an appropriate time for the city office to be moving on to bigger and better things. But although Hacourts have been around since 1888, their history in Christchurch is more recent. The Harcourts name first appeared in Christchurch in late 1985 when Wellington-based Harcourts amalgamated with local firm Collins Real Estate. From one office and four sales people in 1973, Stephen Collins had built his business to five successful offices employing over 60 staff. The company was undoubtedly Christchurch’s largest and most successful real estate firm. Stephen Collins, together with Bob Cooper and a committed team, developed new tactics in marketing, staff training

and management techniques, which combined with a purpose-designed computer system gave them a success rate others still strive to attain. In 1986 Stephen Collins moved to Wellington as managing director of Harcourts Real Estate, and Bob Cooper to Auckland as national administration and systems manager. The Harcourt Corporation, of which Harcourts Real Estate is a major part, gained public listing in December 1986. Harcourts Real Estate now operates over 50 offices, 400 staff and has an annual turnover which is picked to top $lOOO million in sales this year. Because of a commitment to their people, both Collins and Cooper, while sad to move from “where it all began,” were confident that they left behind a team more than capable of going it on their own.

Their faith was wellfounded, as over the last year in Christchurch the management team has expanded the firm to include nine offices and a staff of 100. The Harcourts commitment to quality and professional attitude to real estate is endorsed by the many training and education programmes held during the year. In Christchurch last week, Stephen Collins spoke with obvious pride about the continuing success of the Christchurch offices. Standing in the city branch’s new offices with manager Bill Lloyd, he commented that “it’s good to see that we have people like Bill who are dedicated to the same real estate principles as I began with. I just wish that when I started out we’d had offices like this!”