Portfolio management is a huge factor in every successful business.
Effectively managing the properties you own or lease can help to optimise your investments, streamline your operations and ultimately maximise profitability. It ensures a business is utilising its spaces efficiently, minimising vacancies and making informed decisions about buying, selling or leasing all or part of its properties. It can also help a business to maintain and enhance the value of its assets.
Making smart decisions to ensure your business is operating as efficiently and effectively as possible is pivotal – and that’s where the property specialists at Slater Heelis can help.
Will Henson, partner and head of commercial property at the established and trusted firm, prides himself on the strong, valued relationships he builds with clients, whose businesses are vital to the UK economy, and whose property portfolios are managed meticulously as a result of his team’s expertise.
Will said: “There is a myriad of companies in the UK and overseas that operate branch networks in the UK. These are vital for our economy, they have a huge impact on our local footprint and create so many jobs and opportunities.
“It’s so important for these businesses to protect those assets and work with specialists in property and portfolio management to make them work efficiently and to maximum return in investment. I can’t stress strongly enough just how many sectors in our economy operate branch networks. These range from retail and leisure through to distribution and industrial. Understandably, the people who work within and manage a business aren’t necessarily property experts. Their business isn’t about property per se. Quite rightly, their focus is on other matters, such as the delivery of their own product and R&D. There’s any number of sound reasons why portfolio management should often be outsourced. The company makes the strategic decisions, of course, but the effective implementation of those decisions is then vital. Typically, we’ll work closely with their operations board and facilities managers, as well as with other external professionals such as property consultants and surveyors.
“Branch networks expand and contract. Expansions often follow corporate acquisitions, for example where a business acquires a subsidiary that brings another 20 outlets to the network. A period of consolidation can then follow. Contraction isn’t necessarily a sign that a business is performing badly. More often it’s a sign of good management and moving with the times. For example, in distribution, we’ve seen businesses move away from dense networks of smaller units on local trading estates, to more widely dispersed “hubs”. These consist of much larger modern units, built out like enormous vending machines, located close to motorway networks and other vital transport links.
“The professional team has to prepared for instructions to be thrown at them at short notice. Some are time critical and high risk. We were recently instructed to serve a break notice on large industrial unit, with an annual rent of £300,000.00. The instructions arrived only a day prior to the time critical date specified in the lease. Nevertheless, the notice was served. The lease will end in October, five years ahead or it’s full term and the client will save £1.5m in rent. Acting on matters like that involves risk. Get it wrong and the lease will continue – and you’d have a very unhappy client.
“There’s also a lot of more routine work to manage, new acquisitions, lease renewals, surrenders, assignments and sub-lettings. That’s why choosing a law firm who specialises in this field is so important for businesses.”
Will and his 12-strong team of real estate lawyers at Slater Heelis strive to establish and nurture their relationship with clients. Their sensitive, personable and professional approach has seen them build longstanding relationships on a national scale, with one portfolio client having worked with the team for almost 40 years.
Will said: “We’re very good at getting ahead of any issues a client may face. We’re not just there to implement a client’s instructions and react, but most importantly, we are there to give them strategic, proactive advice too. We’ll meet the client regularly and plan ahead. Being organised and staying on the front foot is the key to successful portfolio management.
“It also helps that we have the resources standing behind us back at the office. Here I mean the valued colleagues who support the relationship. The “nitty gritty” of the work has to be handled well. There can be a lot going on at any one time and you have to be well resourced to manage it all. There’s a constant stream of documents to review and negotiate and some onerous deadlines to adhere to.
“We take pride in maintaining regular contact with our clients. We’ll attend a property meeting at their head office once every six weeks to make sure nothing slips through. As well as nurturing the relationship, these meetings are a great opportunity to catch up with the client’s property consultants and surveyors. That’s so important to risk management. Quite simply, it helps to “join the dots.” There’s a lot of time limits in Landlord & Tenant law that have to be adhered to. If missed the consequences can be very serious for the client’s operation.
“It’s so important, given the huge scale of management required, to choose your legal team carefully, and we’re proud to have been chosen by a growing number of well-known businesses. We’re looking forward to working with more clients to manage their property and boost their business in the future.”
To find out more about how the specialist teams at Slater Heelis could give your business a boost, visit their website here, or contact Will’s team directly on 0161 672 1514.
