May 6, 2012

The March results and the April results have combined to be the best two months in sales that our company has achieved in almost four years. There are three key reasons behind the results; the market conditions are definitely favourable, our offices in respect of better productivity and most importantly the growth of our business over the past 12 months has synced into these results.

When you get favourable market conditions it is generally the best businesses that feel the breeze first and it’s the best businesses that are also the last to come out of those conditions. So the opportunity for revenue is much greater than a poor business, which is last to feel market movement and also the first to lose the market movement.  All things being even, Ray White has reflected the take-up of the good market conditions. Every business has to be ready because the window is getting narrower and the polarisation of the industry very much sees best businesses get better.

On the new office front, we welcomed four new offices in the last month. The Diane Quinn Group formerly from the Professionals has joined their business in the Bay of Islands region with offices in Paihia, Kaikohe and Kawakawa. We have also made our first growth move in Christchurch, with Tariq Kundan opening Ray White Bishopdale. We have four more offices ready to open and they will be coming through during May and early June.

Continuing education is underway. Patricia Love, who is our Group Training Facilitator, has presented to over 1,000 of our members and we see it as a great opportunity to not only present quality training but to also ensure our people have the ability to discuss and engage in continuing education.

We released two significant projects during the month; our Ray White news application which is available through the iTunes Store and also our digital marketing packages. These are significant campaigns which enable property to be specifically targeted across the world and effectively enable a broad distribution on up to 175 premium online sites across the world. We have also added in Google advertising, Trade Me Property packages together with special package prices from our Platinum partner realestate.co.nz.

We are currently in the final stages of looking at filling our Business Performance Manager position based in Christchurch and which covers the South Island. I would be personally keen to hear from anyone who may be interested in the position. As our Group continues to make progress we need to have the best people offering direction and guidance to our members.

There are a number of other initiatives underway and one of the major lead generation programmes that Ray White has just launched in-house is our partnership with AA Smartfuel. Our exclusive arrangement with AA will bring us into contact with their membership which we believe perfectly dovetails into our business, with significant brands being part of the AA Smartfuel programme and it now having over 1.4 million members who regularly utilise AA Smartfuel.  We are in the process of completing our final customer definition and will be proposing to launch in the first week of June.

Other minor branding upgrades are occurring. We have also had further applications and upgrades to Walk Score on our website and also the ability for individual offices to be able to promote various programmes and community organisations through advertising on their own sites.

Lastly I wish to acknowledge those who contributed to the success of our Ronald McDonald House auction which was held with online partner Trade Me. Ronald McDonald House in Auckland do terrific work within our community throughout New Zealand and we are proud to be a Business Club member of such a worthwhile organisation.

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