Feature
Issue No. 34 - April/May 2007
Old name, new value
“Megaw & Hogg National Valuers had its origins in the 100-year-old Megaw & Hogg antiques and auctions group, but it is important to emphasise that it no longer has any connection whatsoever with any other Megaw & Hogg entity,” says Andrew Robertson, CEO of this offshoot enterprise that swiftly grew to national significance after a “standing start” in 1999.
“We operate two businesses, Megaw & Hogg National Valuers and Valuation Exchange. The two are related, but separate and together they tell a great story of South Australian enterprise leading the nation.
“We are the clear market leader in the residential property valuation industry, with a market share of the order of 20% of the national market.
“We commenced our national expansion from our Adelaide base in 1999 and today we operate in 14 locations around Australia, in all States and Territories except NT.
All locations are company owned. Head office remains in Adelaide where the firm has some 70 management and back office processing staff supporting more than 100 valuers, either employed or contracted.
Megaw & Hogg National Valuers was established when the management team realised big mortgage lenders preferred to deal with national valuation firms “of a size and scale to be able to deliver professional valuation services within a corporate framework” Andrew says. The firm will conduct about 100,000 residential property valuations in 2007-08, representing turnover of about $20m.
“The skills and assets required to achieve this can be divided into two categories - firstly, we needed to increase the size and scale of our existing skill base and secondly we needed to re-invent the business on almost every level, from management capacity to IT systems and process efficiency, including establishing a national processing centre to manage the administration of all valuations Australia-wide,” Andrew says.
And there was a service extension to cope with.
...
