Balfours is a well recognised name in Shropshire, they have estate agents and look after estates and buildings. They celebrate 200 years history. We visit the head office to find out more.
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00:00We're here at Shropshire Business Balfours and celebrating 200 years of history serving the
00:05community and introduce yourselves folks. So I'm Craig Varley I'm the business manager for Balfours
00:11and I'm Charlotte Cowley and I'm a property manager. So Balfours a lot of people like myself
00:16as soon as you say Balfours it's like yeah I know that name and you picture the logo but sometimes
00:22that's as far as people know about Balfours. So what do Balfours do as a business? So you're
00:27absolutely right most people will know Balfours as a state agent because they see the boards
00:31around in front of properties but actually a huge proportion of the business is a rural
00:36property management business so we're managing property in the countryside, farm, forestry,
00:42residential lets, small business units, it can also include river banks, mineral extraction
00:50so it's quite different to a normal estate agency that may be just be looking after
00:55residential property. And is that predominantly looking after sites in Shropshire or is that kind
01:01of across the country? It's the core is in Shropshire but we're managing properties in
01:06Staffordshire, Cheshire, North Wales, Mid Wales and Herefordshire I would say that's the core,
01:11the marches. Yeah so talk us through its origins then there's a story to tell it wasn't originally
01:17Balfours it was a kind of a number of companies coming together so where does it all start then
01:22there's a lovely old black and white picture there who's this gentleman it's not that's not
01:26you is it sir? It's not me but one thing's interesting his beards haven't gone out of fashion he's exporting a
01:33great beard. So I think the starting point for the Shropshire story is in the
01:39late 90s there were three Shropshire based businesses all doing the similar thing that
01:43came together there were Burden Evans and they were based in School Gardens in Shrewsbury
01:50there was Balfour and Cook that were based in Windsor Place in Shrewsbury and then there
01:56was Benson Rogers Coleman that was based in Craven Arms and they've all got their history
02:03Balfour and Cook were formed in 1925 and Benson Rogers and Coleman was formed in 1934
02:11but Burden Evans their history goes all the way back to 1825 to this chap here called Timothy
02:18Byrd and Timothy Byrd lived at Carderston originally and he was a rent collector and
02:25tithe collector and he got his first management client managing an estate which was for an Oxford
02:31College in Shropshire in 1825. He was also involved with the the Shropshire to Welshpool railway and
02:40the building of that because this was very much the dawn of the railway era the canals had come
02:46first the railways came after that and then he was joined in the business by his two sons
02:54and they actually then moved to this office here which was Castle Gates in Shrewsbury
03:00and from Castle Gates in about 1880 they moved to School Gardens and they actually moved to
03:05School Gardens it coincided with Shrewsbury School moving out of School Gardens and of course
03:12Charles Darwin was was a pupil at Shrewsbury School so the deep DNA of Balfour's goes all
03:18the way back to this chap in 1825 who must have been riding around the countryside on his horse
03:23with a big satchel collecting rents and tithes from people in in the countryside quite a dangerous
03:31job I know I'm just thinking that actually yeah. So you mentioned Burden Evans you've actually one
03:37of your managing partners he harks back to that time doesn't he? Absolutely so our managing partner
03:42is a gentleman called Rory Galliers and he's actually of the Galliers family that's a Shropshire
03:48family and you may remember Frank Galliers who was a builder and and built a lot of property in
03:54and around Shrewsbury but Rory didn't go into the building game Rory went into into the rural
03:59property management industry and Rory actually joined Burden Evans as it was in School Gardens
04:05as as a young man and a young professional and has been with the company ever since
04:10and I guess Rory's our longest serving employee and partner because he's now an equity partner
04:17in the business. So Charlotte I'll come to you for a little bit of info so there's a there's some
04:23lovely old pictures of race tracks here what's going on where do Balfours come into into the
04:28world of racing? In the 1960s Balfours were still involved in a lot of land estates and at the time
04:35the trend was moving away from horse racing to motor racing so a lot of these estates had circuits
04:43put on on the land and we were involved in a few of the names you might recognise such as Brands
04:51Hatch, Snetterton and Mallory Park. Fantastic you're not involved anymore in those we must say?
04:59No they're a little bit out of our patch at the moment. Yeah yeah yeah because we've kind of forget really
05:03their origins were kind of landowners you know racing their horses against each other and then
05:09that transgressed into motorsport and we'll have a track on our land and those are kind of the
05:14origins so I can see where the connection is there. And in terms of shops, shop fronts, how many
05:22bases have you got kind of in and around Shropshire? We've got three in Shropshire now
05:27and we've got the office in Shrewsbury Town which is in the square, we've got an office in Ludlow
05:33we opened an office in Ludlow in 2015 but due to the successes of it we've outgrown it so
05:40last year we've just opened a new office and we have moved our team from Craven Arms the team
05:47of land agents so they share that office now with the sales team in Ludlow and then we've got our
05:53head office at New Windsor House on the Oxen Business Park. So is it just a coincidence that
05:58this has got Windsor in its name and the old origins is Windsor as well? It's absolutely on
06:04purpose that yeah that that was Windsor House and when we moved the business in 2011 to these
06:10premises here at Oxen we decided to call it New Windsor House. Yeah and yeah it's a fantastic
06:16new building that we're standing here complete bit of solar panels and all the mod cons and
06:21there's a lovely few shots there of the the staff what's happening there they look like they're on
06:26a works jolly. So there's a little bit of both there so what we try and do at Balfours is
06:32every year is have a staff day where we shut the offices for the day and we take the entire
06:38team out for the day. The particular picture we're looking at here is we last summer we took
06:44everybody to Weston Park where we had a look at a number of the enterprises there and some of the
06:50projects. That's it because you actually manage Weston Park don't you as well? We've made Weston Park yes
06:56and we all had lunch there in the orangery and it was it was really fabulous they know
07:00how to do it properly. Yeah and then we've got another picture other pictures here which is
07:04sort of more about continuous professional development. All the rural surveyors have to do
07:11at least 20 hours a year to maintain their chartered status and so we're actually at an
07:18estate here that we're involved with that's just outside Lidbury North and we're looking at a number
07:24of environmental issues but it's actually all about water management and making sure that the
07:30the River Onnie is kept as clean as possible. Yeah so that covers a brief history of
07:37kind of where we're at up till now. So going forward what's the thoughts for the business?
07:43Are Balfours kind of exactly where they want to be or you know where are they looking to be
07:48in the future? So I think any business you've got to look at you've got to continue to evolve
07:53to stay ahead of the pace and what we're continually doing is bringing new people
07:59into the business and training them up. So we have a number of people that have joined us
08:05from university and they are studying to become chartered rural surveyors. We have other individuals
08:12that are coming that have come into the business too and they're studying for accountancy exams
08:18so they're either studying to be bookkeepers or accountants and we have one young man who's
08:24actually from South Shropshire that's in the business that joined us from school as an
08:28apprentice and he's worked his way all the way through the system. He's recently qualified as a
08:33chartered accountant. Fantastic. That's great. And any plans to celebrate the 200 years?
08:40Any other than us doing a special feature? There is. So what we're planning to do
08:46is have a summer garden party because we think that's quite a nice format and you can
08:52entertain a large group of people that way. So we're looking to have a summer garden party at
08:57one of our the estates that we're involved with just outside Shrewsbury and that will be this
09:02summer and we'll be looking to invite clients and staff and all the stakeholders that are involved
09:09with Balfour's. Fantastic. We'll perhaps have to catch up with you for a nice little social spread
09:14in the magazine for that. Absolutely. Well thank you guys for that historical talk.
09:20Thank you. Mr Gallagher, you're longest serving employee I believe? Oh I am, yes. Not quite 200
09:27years. No, it's 1994 so 31 years. So you started when it was one of the original founding companies?
09:35Yes, I started with Burden Evans in 1994 at School Gardens in Shrewsbury. Got you. And now
09:42you're managing partner? Yes. And how many managing partners are there? There's one managing
09:48partner, that's me. Yeah. And there are seven partners in the firm altogether. Oh great, yeah.
09:54And it's fantastic to be celebrating 200 years, isn't it? Yes, it's great, yes. It's a long
10:00history of the firm and we're all really excited that we've got to this point to be able to
10:05celebrate it. Yeah, well it's a difficult world out there, isn't it, in the world of business.
10:10And nice that all that history and I get a sense here people are very passionate about that story
10:16and that history, it's not been forgotten. No, no, we've collected it all over the years and
10:21we've got a good archive of many of the records and photographs and ledgers and accounts and a
10:29good strong history of many, many of the estates that we've managed over the years. Well thank you
10:35for inviting us in today and letting us share that story and here's to another 200 years, sir.
10:39It's a pleasure, yes. I look forward to it.