Rapleys repositions, rebrands and commits to growth drive centred around people, infrastructure and clients

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Property consultancy Rapleys has launched its new brand, refocused the business and reorganised its leadership team amid a drive for sustainable growth.

Justin Tuckwell, head of building consultancy, has been made managing partner – a new role to drive operations, business growth, market positioning and oversee the company’s internal and external people strategy, working alongside Robert Clarke as senior partner.

As part of this, the company has promoted head of affordable housing, Nick Fell to head of residential with responsibility for the whole division.

Angus Irvine will continue to head up the Residential Development Agency team and in addition has been given responsibility to drive forward our Build to Rent and Retirement/Senior Living consultancy services, which are key business aims of the Residential Division.

The business has been repositioned around four core service lines – building consultancy, commercial, planning, and residential – that combine to provide full services to clients with a particular focus on the industries where Rapleys stands out as the leading advisor such as automotive, roadside & trade counters; retail & food stores; residential – in particular BTR and Affordable Housing, healthcare and retirement -alongside the company’s other sector and market coverage. Previously, there were some 17 service lines but these have all been regrouped under the four divisions to create a simpler and more collaborative culture. Within the core service lines are industry experts in each asset class. Teams are hand-picked for each client, based on their needs throughout the lifecycle of their assets.

Rapleys has ramped up its investment in people and infrastructure, hiring a new strategy and operations director, HR business partner, and a new sustainability team, while radically overhauling systems and benefits aimed at supporting, retaining and attracting the best talent.

The company has also invested in the brand, the website and other technology. The new brand includes a fresh and modern creative, focused messaging targeted to specific stakeholder groups and a new, intuitive website. The new positioning leverages both the professionalism and client service that Rapleys is known for, and accelerates the proactivity, technology, inclusivity and creativity that all employees are actively engaged with.

Total investment into these strategic elements, products and workstreams represents a significant proportion of profit and a huge uplift on previous initiatives.

Robert Clarke, senior partner at Rapleys, says: “Historically, we have been fairly discrete in our market positioning in comparison to 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 all’ approach. We believe that clients get best value from authentic expertise underpinned by creativity and a depth of talent handpicked for their individual needs”.

Justin Tuckwell, newly appointed managing partner at Rapleys adds: “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’ve 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.” 

Rapleys also has national coverage with offices in Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Huntingdon, Manchester, and London. These local offices are integrated into the national service lines and industries taking a collaborative approach crucial to the success of this new business strategy. 

With recent growth including the onboarding of Bristol planning practice CSJ and the new sustainability team, the strategy is already starting to have an impact. 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.