New Executive Appointment at Century 21
Category Newsletter: Ceo's Message
Century 21 South Africa has announced the appointment of David Shevil as its National Franchise Manager.
Shevil has several years of property industry experience having worked as National Marketing Manager for The Just Property Group and finally as General Manager for the group. His duties included business consulting which incorporated marketing, general management, financial management and business mentorship for over 150 franchises around South Africa.
According to Harry Nicolaides, the CEO, Shevil’s appointment is at the executive level and is critical at a time when the brand is experiencing an increase in its national growth with franchisees that have converted their substantial independent business to Century 21 franchises and from a few of the current franchisees that have expanded their businesses by opening multiple offices.
“Shevil’s multi-faceted experience is exactly the qualities we looked for in a person to handle the functions required from a National Franchise Manager which incorporates all aspects required to assist our franchisees in the daily running of their businesses and he will complement our existing executives in our training, marketing and administration departments”.
Nicolaides goes on to say that Shevil’s appointment forms part of the brands program to expand its head office complement to offer superior support and services to its existing franchisees and their agents and to new people joining the brand.
“We have just awarded the critical and lucrative territories of Umhlanga, Durban North and Umdloti to the dynamic family trio of Lourens, Nadia and Ruan Erasmus who converted their Prop-Hunt business to Century 21. Lourens is a coup for the brand as he has over 20 years of experience in those territories and owns his very own substantial office premises in the Gateway precinct of Umhlanga. Lourens will be opening a second office in the Durban North area shortly. At the same time Vanessa Ribeiro, our Richards Bay franchisee has opened her third office in Empangeni and two new Pretoria offices and another one in the Western Cape will be awarded and announced in a few days’ time”.
Nicolaides concludes by saying that he is positioning the brand in the country as a traditional property brand with equally shared responsibilities between the principals and their agents which culminates in an equal distribution of commission between them and steers away from fancy theoretical financial incentives which hardly ever materialise. He says that the traditional model has proved to be the success of the major brands over decades now and because professional agents, although tempting, do not only want instant financial incentives but also want the comfort of being able to create a long term career with a principal that is sustainable, relevant, a long term player and where they have enough resources to re-invest in the business by way of improved systems, marketing, technology, awareness and initiatives that ultimately benefit the agents as they themselves solidify their careers.
Author: Century 21 South Africa
