The merger of retail and leisure specialist MMX Retail and Fawcett Mead has completed.
The tie-up, revealed by CoStar News in November, brings together 20 senior industry figures. The new amalgamated practice is to be called FMX Urban Property Advisers and provides a full-range retail, leisure, food and beverage, and urban property advisory service.
MMX Retail and Fawcett Mead were both founded in 2010, with their main objectives offering senior retail consultancy.
The company said today in a statement: "MMX Retail’s reputation for nimble, trusted leasing and asset management services and market-leading landlord and tenant advice provides a complementary offer to Fawcett Mead’s established reputation as a leading retail investment agency in the UK."
Both firms operate in all sub-sectors of the retail and leisure market but are weighted to different parts.
The company said the merger provides the opportunity to balance key business areas and become a more dominant market presence.
It added: "In turn, this will allow the team to ably support clients across more than one discipline and paves the way for further and more wide-ranging growth of the combined business."
FMX will combine its two London offices in the near term in a central London location. Operations in Bristol and via consultancy support in Yorkshire will remain as it focuses on a portfolio of retail and leisure instructions that spans the UK.
Speaking to CoStar News, David Justice, partner at FMX, said the response to the merger had been overwhelmingly positive: "Everybody has said we totally understand why you are doing this as it is such a great synergy between two businesses."
Fellow partner James Mead adds that clients are "really pleased about it and expected it" while Graham Fawcett says: "It is easy to say it but it genuinely is a good fit."
All three say the market has begun 2023 on a much more positive footing than the second half of last year.
Mead says: "From the investment point of view people have always had an appetite for retail. But new investors are appearing now attracted by the yield profile. Now we have more stability in the economy and market and people can make investment decisions."
Justice adds: "On the occupational side we have been surprised at how the market has come back and that has continued in terms of new enquiries and new businesses and we are talking to new companies looking to come to these shores. Everybody in the occupier space seems quite positive because they have been trading well."
In terms of the name FMX Urban Property Advisers, Mead explains: "The name was a light-bulb moment. We sat around with consultants thinking it through and then when it was said everyone immediately said yes that works. It is simple and has links to both businesses."
Justice adds that the Urban Property Advisers is the most important addition pointing to how retail advice has changed. "That does what it says on the tin. I have had more comments about that than anything."
Mead says the business is already working up 50 new sales, for new clients and old.
"We are also launching our new FMX valuer app at the end of March and we will be doing a couple of important research pieces. A yield profile for the top 100 towns in the autumn for instance. We will be offering real property advice that is more cerebral. It about the depth of advice."
Justice said in a statement: "Our longstanding association with the team at Fawcett Mead and the natural likeness of our business culture, values and client delivery approach has made for a very comfortable coming together of like minds that will ultimately result in the delivery of a greater level of expertise and opportunity for our combined client base.
“The retail and leisure market has changed beyond recognition over recent years, but ultimately the value of our experience and the connections we bring to the table, as a collective firm, is significant."
Fawcett added in the statement: “The retail market remains challenging, but this presents a great opportunity for well advised investors. Now more than ever, investments need to be made with the benefit of live market context and experience. The combined skill set and knowledge base of the two businesses we have shaped, which draw upon our history working for big name agency practices earlier in our careers, allows us to deliver that experience honestly and always in the interests of those we represent."
MMX Retail was founded in 2010 by former Blair Kirkman Partners, and then Savills, directors David Justice, David Jinks and Nick Symons. Lisa Hardy, formerly of Cushman & Wakefield, and Scott Mitchell, formerly Strutt & Parker, joined later. Clients include Marks & Spencer, Federated Hermes, Hammerson, EE, Abrdn, LK Bennett, menswear retailer Moss and The Crown Estate.
The group is expert in agency, lease advisory, landlord and tenant work, development and repurposing and investment. According to its website it has 4.5 million square feet of lease space on shopping centres under management, has settled 250 rent reviews in the last 12 months and has advised on £826 million of investment transactions since it launched.
Fawcett Mead was founded in 2010 by Graham Fawcett and James Mead after the duo left JLL, which they had joined as part of its acquisition of Churston Heard in 2008.
Clients have included disposal programmes and advice for Kennedy Wilson, Columbia Threadneedle Investments, CBRE Global Investor, Legal & General, Federated Hermes and Ellandi as well as advice on a number of receiverships of large multiple retailers including The Works, Hawkins Bazaar and Clinton Cards.
According to its website it has completed 75 investment transactions in the last 12 months totalling £585 million and has worked on leasing instructions in 75 towns across the UK.
Fawcett Mead's James Mead and MMX's David Justice are both heavily involved in the Elifar Foundation Charity, a property industry backed charity which aims to help improve the care, facilities and equipment available to profoundly disabled children and young adults.