Rapleys has promoted head of building consultancy Justin Tuckwell to managing partner, as it repositions its offering for clients.
Tuckwell will drive operations, business growth and market positioning at the company in his new role, as well as oversee its internal and external people strategy. He will lead the business alongside senior partner Robert Clarke.
In other changes, head of affordable housing Nick Fell has been promoted to head of residential. He replaces Angus Irvine, who will focus on residential and land agency.
The business has been repositioned around four core service lines: building consultancy; commercial; planning; and residential. These have been slimmed down from 17 service lines, which have been regrouped under the quartet.
The consultancy highlighted particular focus on automotive, roadside and trade counters; retail and food stores; and residential – in particular BTR and affordable housing, healthcare and retirement.
Rapleys said it has also invested in people and infrastructure, hiring a new strategy and operations director, HR business partner, a new sustainability team, and overhauling existing systems and benefits to attract and retain talent. Further details were not disclosed.
Further strategic growth is planned in the coming months as the business looks for more building consultancy and planning hires in addition to making further investment in infrastructure to help drive innovation.
The consultancy has also invested in new branding, its website and other technology.
Rapleys said its total investment into the new strategy represented “a significant proportion of profit and a huge uplift on previous initiatives”, although further financial details were not disclosed.
Clarke said: “Historically, we have been fairly discrete in our market positioning in comparison with other property firms. Most of our business is recurring with long-term clients or secured through recommendation. We put our people and clients first and take pride in delivering creative solutions across our areas of expertise.
“While our focus on people and clients will not change, we have realised that in this fast-changing world, there’s value in communicating more clearly our strengths and now’s the ideal time for us to do so. We have simplified our offer around the services and industry sectors where we believe we are genuinely best-in-class advisors. We are comfortable focusing on these rather than offering a one-size-fits-al’ approach. We believe that clients get best value from authentic expertise underpinned by creativity and a depth of talent handpicked for their individual needs.”
Tuckwell said: “With a more focused growth strategy comes the need to invest in the brand, the infrastructure, and most importantly our people. We are radically shaking up the traditional employee experience and benefits to ensure that we really do provide a best practice work environment and career development.
“Indeed, our people helped develop our new brand messaging and we have launched a new website that better explains who we are and what we do. We have also hired an operational team to support our technology and data strategy that will provide the necessary platform our market-facing experts need to be able to do their jobs easily and efficiently, with plenty of development opportunities for a long career here with us. By having healthy, happy and motivated people, our clients will continue to benefit from their creativity, proactivity and best-in-class advice.”
The news comes after Bristol planning practice CSJ joined Rapleys earlier this year.
Rapleys has offices in Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Huntingdon, Manchester and London.
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