Bruntwood’s portfolio value increases in 2010

Manchester-based commercial property company Bruntwood has announced its latest set of results for the financial year ending September last year.

Bruntwood, which manages over 100 office buildings across Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds and Birmingham, said it had a strong increase of 28% in new lettings across its portfolio.

The total value of the company's portfolio of offices was up 4% to £948m, and its net worth up 3.2% to £310m. Turnover was up 3% to £100.2m while net profit fell slightly to £11.1m.

Bruntwood let 27,000 sq ft to ADT and 17,000 sq ft to Faber Maunsell at 1 New York Street and 25,000 sq ft to Manchester City Council at Elliot House in 2010.

Chris Oglesby, chief executive of Bruntwood, who runs the company with chairman and father Mike, said: "Despite a tough market and stiff competition, we have delivered a very impressive increase in new lettings with a record year in Greater Manchester and continued success in our other three cities, Birmingham, Leeds and Liverpool, where we have attracted significant new occupiers. I am proud of the way that the team at Bruntwood have once again responded in delivering another very good set of results.

"Although the market appears to be awash with bargains at the moment, on closer scrutiny, there is very little stock offering value of any quality. Despite this, we were able to dig out three high quality buildings which we believe offer exceptional value across the cycle. We are pleased to be acquiring properties again and are keen to extend our customer focussed business model across the major UK regional cities. We work hard to be seen as our customers' property partner, rather than their landlord and focus all our efforts on creating the right environments for them to succeed. Put simply, we know that our success and growth is inextricably linked to theirs."