Leaders looks to buy in the Midlands
Lettings agent Leaders has told Insider it is eyeing the Midlands for further acquisitions. The company, which is based in Worthing, has been snapping up letting companies throughout the South East and managing director Paul Weller said: "The Midlands is a target area for us."
He said: "We're looking at the M4 corridor to grow and expand – the Midlands is definitely somewhere we're looking to move.
"We think there is an opportunity in the market for a reputable letting agent to consolidate the market. We're the biggest letting specialist in the UK, we're privately owned and it's very much our business plan to grow by acquisition."
Leaders has been expanding aggressively by buying businesses and consolidating them into the existing Leaders brand. And since 2005, Leaders has bought and integrated 40 businesses, branches or portfolios.
Weller said: "We've always grown by acquisition and we accelerated our rate of acquisition in 2005. We've acquired nine branches since Christmas. We acquired a three branch business in January, one branch business in March and a six branch businesses in May. It's a smaller number than we expected, but they have been multi-branch deals.
"We have always got deals in the pipeline. I have got five deals that are heading towards completion this summer.
"Over the next 12 months we're going to continue to make acquisitions, at least at the rate we've been making them, if not faster. We're always talking to other businesses and keeping our pipeline filled."
