News

The fashion retailer Fenn Wright Manson, which operates 17 standalone stores and 62 department store concessions has sadly,  recently gone into administration but for the avoidance of any doubt we would like to make it clear that there is no connection whatsoever between Fenn Wright Manson and Fenn Wright Estate Agents.

Knights are generally called on to rescue damsels, but in a slightly unusual role reversal, if the President of Mersea Island's Dabchicks Sailing Club finds himself overboard in deep water during the Sonata Nationals sailing regatta in June, it will be his partner Maria who will come to the rescue.

In the Dabchicks' Centenary Year, Graham Frost, 52, is serving a two-year term as Club President, having completed the previous two years as Commodore and before that, Vice-Commodore. In recent months, the avid sailor who is also the Club's Power Boat Training Centre Principal has been coaching his partner Maria Montgomery to helm a Club rescue boat.

Graham joined the Dabchicks in 1994 and started sailing on the Sonata "Aubie Too" owned and helmed by Tony Hawks and Pat Hill. His two sons Tom (21) and George (17) are also members of the club, and sailing is becoming more than just a hobby for one of the boys.

"Tom is currently studying for an Ocean Yachting degree at Plymouth University and was awarded a bursary from Trinity House, presented to him at the Southampton Boat Show by Sir Robin Knox Johnston," Graham said. "He is currently on a gap year at sea in the Mediterranean on a Super Yacht owned by an Australian billionaire! However George, who is studying to be an electronics engineer, is still sailing dinghies - and his dad's yacht - with the club".

Graham and Maria first met when Maria, an Associate Partner with local estate agents Fenn Wright, was called in to value Graham's house as an assignment that was to radically change their lives. They fell for each other, and in order to spend more time together, Graham gave up his occupation in the City selling global data networks and became a negotiator himself at Fenn Wright in Colchester.

In turn, Maria joined the Dabchicks in 2010 and started sailing with Graham when they bought a yacht together (a 27 foot Colvic Salty Dog called "Seahound") at the end of last season. They are dedicated Mersea Islanders, and live in a beachside apartment overlooking the Blackwater Estuary at West Mersea.

The Sonata Nationals are a very special event in Graham's yearly calendar, and one he is looking forward to with enthusiasm.

"In our very special Centenary Year, it's a particular pleasure for me as President to welcome the Sonata Nationals back to Mersea for the first time since 2006," he said. "I have raced on Aubie Too since 1996 and love the class as the racing is so close. One bad tack and you can lose several places in the fleet. We anticipate attracting 20 to 30 boats from all over the UK, but there's no limit to numbers and we will welcome as many as choose to come and take part.

"As well as some excellent sailing, we're putting on social events every evening in the week. We've been extremely fortunate in attracting some generous sponsors, including Fenn Wright, Hyde Sails, Insure-a-Boat and G+G Gallo Enterprises. The Club have also been considerably boosted by an award of £10,000 match funding from the RYA which has been used to purchase a start/race management boat (a Mitchell 31 named 'Centenary'), for all future events," he concluded.

The Sonata Nationals begins with a warm up practice race and welcome evening on June 5th, followed by eight races taking place over the next five days culminating with prize giving on Friday June 10th. Graham will be taking part in all of the races on Aubie Too with crew members Tony, Pat and Barry.

"I'm rather hoping not to be seeing too much of Maria during the actual races," Graham said, "although it'll be good to know there's a top notch highly-trained rescue team on hand if the worst happens!"

A successful and lucrative fishery close to the coast in Lincolnshire comes with nine acres, three lakes, a caravan site, static holiday cabin and attractive chalet-style facilities building incorporating good-sized owners ' accommodation. 

Offered for sale through fisheries sales specialists Fenn Wright at a guide price of £975,000, Oasis Lakes Fishery is located in the village of North Somercotes between the popular seaside resorts of Cleethorpes and Mablethorpe with their many miles of sandy beaches.

The lakes at Oasis were dug out for sand and gravel in the 1930s, and for 30 years prior to 1998 operated as a trout fishery. Considerably improved and expanded in recent years, it now offers 98 purpose-built quality pegs, most with car parking behind, to day ticket coarse fishing anglers including an increasing number of visitors staying on site.

Island, Roadside and Carp are the names of the three lakes, which cover an area of over four acres in all, with Carp Lake reaching a depth of 15ft in parts. All the lakes are stocked with quality coarse fish including carp to 38lbs, tench, bream, roach, perch, ghost carp to 19 lbs and catfish. Regular matches attract a large number of entrants.

The touring caravan park is in a secluded, wooded setting and offers five well-spaced pitches with electricity hook-ups. Planning permission has been granted for five more. This season, a static holiday cabin close to the facilities building has attracted a good number of visitors.

Built around three years ago, the timber-clad facilities building incorporates a cafe with upwards of 30 covers, a well-utilised tackle and bait shop and some good-sized storerooms. Upstairs, owners' accommodation consists of an open-plan kitchen and living room with French doors out to a balcony, 3 double bedrooms (one with en suite bathroom), plus a family bathroom.

Fenn Wright partner and fisheries expert Martin Freeman said: 'Oasis Lakes is a fishery in very good order, both literally and in business terms. The healthy annual turnover has been achieved through the hard work of the current owners, but there is still room to build on the existing facilities with the expansion of the caravan site, and given the popularity of the static cabin this season, this might be another area to look into for the new owners. '

Full information on Oasis Lakes Fishery is available from Fenn Wright on 01206 216555 or visit the website fisheries4sale.com.

A Swedish banking group, which has expanded rapidly throughout the UK in recent years, have opened their new branch in Ipswich.

Through their agents Fenn Wright, Handelsbanken have acquired prominent new premises in Grafton House on Russell Road, a building already home to Ipswich Borough Council.

Handelsbanken was founded in Stockholm in 1871, and since then has grown to encompass 700 branches in 22 countries. The bank, which originally came to Britain in 1982, has announced the opening of 22 new branches nationwide this year, taking the UK total to more than 100.

Mike Olding, who is Branch Manager at Handelsbanken, remarked 'British customers, both individuals and businesses, seem to appreciate our style of banking, which concentrates on building personal relationships through dedicated account managers, and making decisions at local level.'

'Our move to Ipswich will allow us to reach a part of the East of England where we are so far under-represented' he concluded.

Grafton House is located in the heart of Ipswich's business hub, close to the Suffolk County Council offices at Endeavour House and Constantine House and the Crown Court building. Handelsbanken's new branch comprises prominent corner premises at the front of the ground floor.

Alistair Mitchell, partner and head of Fenn Wright's Commercial Division in Ipswich said: 'we are delighted to have been able to assist with Handelsbanken continued expansion and to have negotiated the successful acquisition of their premises. I am sure that this innovative move will prove to be popular with both their private and commercial customers'.

To contact Fenn Wright for help in acquiring or disposing of commercial premises of all types, telephone 01473 232701.

Fifteen Fenn Wright staff members donned the firm's smart track kits and shook the sand out of their trainers to take part in Chelmsford's Race for Business 2011, which this year raised funds for Little Haven Children's Hospice in Thundersley.

Staff from the offices at Ipswich, Colchester, Tollgate, Witham and Chelmsford were among the almost 1400 other competitors from local firms who gathered in Chelmsford town centre on the warm evening of June 22nd to compete in the 5K event. They assembled on Springfield Road in Chelmsford town centre, racing through Admiral's Park and West Park before crossing the finishing line outside the offices of the organisers, Birketts LLP solicitors in Brierly Place on New London Road.

Given their previous records for exceptional physical endeavours, it was not surprising to see Mark Sargeantson leading the Fenn Wright contingent home in an impressive time of 23 minutes and 59 seconds in 159th place over all, followed by Rob Windus slightly less than a minute behind in 214th position. Top placed female was Carolyn Pink who romped home in 27 minutes 15 seconds in 403rd place. Even Chelmsford's ladies, Carole Howcroft, Angie Goodwin and Michelle Reedie, who all confessed to quite a lot of walking, managed to complete the course, taking the overall team place to 57th out of 151 teams taking part.

Alistair Mitchell of Fenn Wright's Ipswich office said after the run: 'It was good to take part in this very popular event once again and to help raise money for another worthy cause. We always have a good team turn out for the race and its great that those of us who are not regular runners still make the effort and manage to finish the course smiling through the pain!'

The event was instigated in 1998 by Woollastons LLP, recently merged with Birketts, and since then is estimated to have raised more than £400,000 for various local charities. Final figures for sums raised by this year's race, have yet to be reached, but in excess of £20,000 was raised in entry fees alone. With individual sponsorship money going directly to the charity, last years figure of £30,000 should be comfortably exceeded.

This year's beneficiary, Little Haven Children's Hospice, provides respite breaks, symptom control and end-of-life care for youngsters suffering life-threatening conditions and needs £2.4m annually to support their work.

An expanding local IT group has taken a suite in Crown House in Ipswich to enable them to take advantage of the town centre's fast broadband speeds as well as providing a central hub for business.

In a letting arranged through joint agents Fenn Wright on behalf of Commercial Estates Group, Strident Computer Systems Ltd, have taken a 2,130sq ft suite in Crown House on Crown Street, on the northern section of the towns inner ring road. Crown House is a five-storey landmark office building, providing high quality suites from 1000 sq ft up to 10000 sq ft.

Founded in 1993 by present Group Chairman Richard Parker, Strident Group currently has around 35 employees, occupying main offices in Claydon Court just outside the town. Their premises are currently undergoing extension works, which should be completed by early October. However, broadband speeds in Claydon are not sufficiently fast for all the extremely high-tech needs of the company, which will be met at the new Strident Data Centre (SDC) in 2 East Crown House.

Philip Shard, SCS's General Manager, outlined some of the new systems and services offered at the Centre, including SharePoint, a massively powerful computer program, which allows a user to monitor all aspects of a business's functioning from anywhere in the world, it also provides first class Document Management and Collaboration, as well as the creation of automated office administrative processes. Strident are also offering a, 'Local Cloud' solution as an alternative to, or to compliment Microsoft's new concept 'Cloud' computing, allowing the hiring of huge processing power for varying lengths of time, and a hosting service for the central storage of data. The Centre will also provide a Disaster Recovery Service for subscribers, which will enable a business to restore its emails, phone contacts, supply train etc in the event of a catastrophe at the firm's premises.

'Crown House is the ideal solution for us,' said Mr Shard. 'We did not need a great deal of extra space, but we did need somewhere central where people can call and see us, and where we can make use of the town centre's broadband speeds. Commercial Estates Group were happy to tailor the size of the suite to our needs, so we have exactly what suits us, which represents good value for money for us.'

Alistair Mitchell of Fenn Wright commented : 'Some businesses have the perception that Crown House can only accommodate larger companies. However, this is not the case and we currently have a number of smaller suites available, similar to Strident's. There is a carefully planned, ongoing program of refurbishment, modernisation and upgrading, ensuring that the premises continue to meet the needs of tenants. Our clients are able to offer flexible lease terms and always react quickly to ensure that tenants can move in with the minimum fuss and without any significant delays. We are delighted to welcome Strident to the building and wish them every success with their new venture.'

Further information on similar suites and other commercial properties is available from Fenn Wright on 01473 232701.

Live Well UK, a social enterprise company awarded the contract by NHS Suffolk to deliver healthy lifestyle services, has leased premises at Adelphi House on Turret Lane in Ipswich.

The building will be the official drop in centre for Live Well Suffolk, the county's new healthy lifestyles service.

In a letting arranged through Fenn Wright, Live Well UK has taken the ground and first floors of the building, which occupies a prominent site adjoining the Old Cattle Market Bus Station.

Live Well UK is currently putting the people and resources in place for a fully integrated Live Well Suffolk healthy lifestyle service, which will be operational from July.

Adelphi House will be headed by service manager Dougie Slater, and will be the main drop-in centre for the service, although there will be other satellite centres across Suffolk in areas such as Sudbury, Haverhill, Felixstowe and Bury St Edmunds.

Alistair Mitchell, of Fenn Wright's Commercial Department in Ipswich said: "The increasing awareness and concern about achieving and maintaining a healthy lifestyle should ensure that Live Well Suffolk attracts a large clientele, and the central location and easy access to Adelphi House makes it an ideal location for a drop-in centre. We wish them well with the expansion of their venture."

The second floor of the building, about 2250 sq ft and with the benefit of on site parking, will shortly be available on a new lease.

Full details of the remaining floor of Adelphi House and other similar premises are available from Fenn Wright on 01473 232701.

For further information on Live Well Suffolk contact 01473 326408 or email info@livewellsuffolk.org.uk.

Fenn Wright have been sponsors at three major charity events arranged by Colchester Colne Round Table, this financial year.

Round Table Councillor James (Jim) Crafford, who joined Fenn Wright two and a half years ago as a senior residential surveyor in Colchester High Street office, has played a major role in all three events.

Jim, 36, is Colchester born and bred, living locally with his wife, Jennifer. At work, he undertakes a wide variety of tasks including building surveys, development appraisals, lease enfranchisement and acting as an expert witness. He is passionate about period timber framed buildings, and has recently undertaken building surveys on two of the County's converted windmills, which he thoroughly enjoyed.

In his spare time, he enjoys a variety of sports and has played for Colchester at rugby, hockey and cricket, as well as playing squash at Lexden Racquets Club. He joined Round Table at the same time as moving to Fenn Wright, seeing it as an opportunity to get involved in fundraising for charity and to meet new people and business contacts. This year, Headway Essex, which supports those suffering the after-effects of brain injury, was chosen for a big fundraising drive.

The recent Fenn Wright sponsored events kicked off in February with black tie dinner, casino night and charity auction at The Moot Hall when Jim was auctioneer, raising a fantastic £8,000 from 12 donated lots. Colchester's 12th successive Annual School Music Prom at the Charter Hall followed in mid March with Jim acting as compere. Three hundred and thirty students from eight local schools took part, and were joined by students from the Music School at Wetzlar, Colchester's German twin town.

The culminating event for the 2010/11 financial year was the first ever official Colchester Half Marathon, of which Jim was on the organising committee. The race started and ended at the Weston Homes Community Stadium, where Fenn Wright were able to provide one of the 1,000 participants as well as being a major sponsor. Commercial surveyor Rob Windus, who undertook the Berlin Marathon last year in honour of his war hero grandfather, overcame a back injury to take part and completed the course in just under two hours.

"For an inaugural event it was particularly well organised and marshalled. If Colchester Colne Round Table chose to continue this event on an annual basis, I will definitely sign up again next year," said Rob, who has several more events lined up for the year, culminating in the Ironman contest in Panama City in November.

The Marathon took place on a dry and bright day and received a glowing write up in East Anglia's press. The winner of the race completed the course in 1hour, 9 minutes and the race was declared a huge success, raising over £11,000.

The race was restricted to 1000 runners this year but Jim is hopeful the race will be opened up to 1500 in 2012, given the huge public interest.

Jim is delighted with Round Table having raised more than £25,000 this year for Headway Essex and thoroughly enjoyed his various roles. But he's already looking forward to the fundraising challenges for the year ahead.

"We're so grateful to everyone who helps us to achieve our aims," Jim concluded. "This includes Fenn Wright and our other generous sponsors, and all the people who take part to make these events a success. We couldn't do it without you."

Acting on behalf of Ultrahaven Ltd, Fenn Wright have agreed terms to let a substantial warehouse at Stowmarket to warehouse and distribution operators TDG (UK) Ltd.

The property, situated on the Tomo Industrial Estate, amounts to some 24,871 sq.ft., and was marketed at an asking rental of £2.50 per sq.ft.

TDG (UK) Ltd is based in the Stowmarket area and acts as main distributors for ICI, Nobel and other major companies.

The company was recently acquired by the substantial French-based group, Norbert Dentressangle, who also own Christian Salveson.

In total, the group occupies over 5,300,000 sq.m. of warehouse accommodation trading from 355 centres in 16 European countries, and having a turnover of 2.719 billion (www.norbetdentressangle.co.uk).

The Norbert Dentressangle Group in the UK has over 7,000 employees and occupies 1,883,800 sq.m. of warehousing accommodation and trades from around 94 sites.

For further information on similar properties, contact Richard Bertram at Fenn Wright on 01473 232701.

Fenn Wright have been declared runners-up in a competition for the greatest number of commercial property deals completed throughout Essex during 2010, held by the highly regarded property industry magazine, Estates Gazette.

"The firm that beat us deals mainly with the south of the County," said Roger Hayward, head of Fenn Wright's commercial property departments in Essex. "Therefore, I feel we can safely claim to have been be the most successful Commercial Property Agent in north Essex in 2010."

Fenn Wright's commercial sales departments completed more than 100 deals during 2010, almost exclusively in the north Essex region, beating their nearest north Essex rivals by approximately 40%.

"Given the difficult economic conditions and the relatively low level of commercial activity in the year, we can regard this as an enormous achievement, and I pay tribute to our Commercial Departments both in Essex and Suffolk, who worked tirelessly on behalf of our clients to achieve these results," said Mr Hayward.

"Looking to the next 12 months, we hope to see a return to more favourable trading conditions. At present, confidence remains fragile and local businesses need to see a continuation of low interest rates, and economic incentives to encourage investment in fixed assets. The extension of the liability to pay Empty Business Rates to small business premises is another example of muddled thinking by the Government on this important issue," he concluded.