Edmund Cude Rebrands As Portico

Edmund Cude is one of the oldest names in the London property business - but as of April 2015 it launches under its new name: Portico.

Portico is fresh, relevant, memorable and distinctive and will be deployed across the network of 11 central London offices alongside a new fleet of black Mercedes-Benz company cars.

And with the new change comes an entirely new customer proposition.

"It is a really exciting year for the Edmund Cude Group. We have 11 offices across London with a number of strong local brands, but from April 2015 these will be united under a single brand, Portico. This isn't simply a name change though; we have completely re-engineered our processes and proposition to make sure that our new packages really go to the heart of what our clients want. And with features like our in-house maintenance team, we look forward to demonstrating just how useful the Portico service really is."

Robert Nichols , Managing Director

Edmund Cude was entirely lettings focused until three years ago when the company acquired big-name Bushells, but the new brand will be known for both lettings and sales, and will offer both landlords and vendors a range of bespoke packages providing services they simply can’t get from other estate agents.

These exciting new packages – which will soon be revealed - are unique to Portico. Like every major change, there’s a story behind it. And the Portico story is inspired by their customers.

In autumn last year, the company spoke to over 1,000 existing and potential customers to find out what they loved and hated about the process of selling and renting property.

Customers particularly liked the insightful approach that Edmund Cude took to helping landlords understand their obligations and vendors understand their local market dynamics. It also emerged that 60% of Edmund Cude’s landlords actually originally lived in the property that they now rent out, so the ability to deliver the best quality tenants continued to be of paramount importance.

But landlords often expressed frustration at having to pay expensive contractors to resolve minor maintenance issues in their rental properties.

So these values of approachability, insightful property knowledge and the creation of a team of twenty in-house tradesmen, became the cornerstones of Portico’s new proposition.

But perhaps the most visible change is the name.

Edmund Cude has served as the company’s moniker for nearly two centuries, and Bushells has been around for nearly 80 years, but in a crowded and often undifferentiated marketplace of companies typically bearing the owner’s surname, they wanted something relevant, new and fresh.

Their new name and packages were revealed to employees at an all-company launch event just before Easter, with the name changing across all 11 offices over the Easter weekend.