A DERBYSHIRE lettings and estate agents has won a prestigious national award.
Nicholas Humphreys, which has offices in Derby and Burton and whose HQ is in Loughborough, won the Independent Lettings Agency of the Year (one to five offices) title in The Negotiator Awards 2012, which is run by the leading publication for residential agents.
The annual awards rate the work of estate and lettings agents from all over the UK.
An awards ceremony took place recently at the London Hilton, Park Lane, after finalists were judged by a top panel of industry experts including chairman of The Property Ombudsman Bill McClintock and president-elect of the National Association of Estate Agents Jan Hytch.
Speaking about the award, the agency's chief executive officer, Nicholas Humphreys, said: "The Negotiator Awards is a highly respected event in the calendar of the industry so to achieve an award win is a real coup for us.
"We're thrilled to have been recognised and the award is testament to the hard work put into the business and the fantastic team here.
"We feel we've made real headway in an industry undoubtedly hit by the challenging economic climate, and we've done this without making any staff cuts – in fact, we've recruited new people over the last few years to facilitate company growth.
"One of our single biggest achievements has been the franchising of the business, and we've also undertaken a company re-brand and invested £25,000 into our website to add functions such as an iPhone application, Google earth, online tenant applications and payments, to name a few."
Nicholas Humphreys' award success could also be attributed to its support of local charities, including a local disabled school and boxing club. The majority of its fundraising goes to Rainbows, the Loughborough-based children's hospice, to which it donated £5,500 this year from a golf day auction as well as £10,000 from its summer ball.
Grant Leonard at The Negotiator said: "Each year the entries get better and this year was no different. We saw some fantastic submissions for all of the categories, so competition was stiff. Nicholas Humphreys' entry showed real innovation and so its award was thoroughly deserved."
For further details on Nicholas Humphreys' serv-ices, visit www.nicholas humphreys.com.