Q+A: Bidwells’ Pettit and Bream on plans to double the business by 2030

This interview first appeared in React News.

Bidwells is best known to many as one of the oldest property businesses in the UK. Headquartered in Cambridge with nine offices across the country, including four in Scotland, the consultancy has developed a focus on life sciences, energy and natural assets.

However, recent news that a team of build-to-rent specialists had moved over from Cortland Consult signalled a shift in Bidwells’ strategy.

Advising on operational real estate is set to form a large part of Bidwells’ future business ambitions, which also encompasses significant investment across the company and a major recruitment drive.

React News caught up with senior partner Nick Pettit and chief operating officer Kelly Bream to get the details on their plans for growth.

You’re best known for your 185-year history in Cambridge, with a wider focus on the Golden Triangle. What are your plans for growth?

Nick Pettit: Put simply, we’re doubling the size of the business by 2030. It’s our ambition as custodians of our business to build out our advisory as we have done to the tips of the Golden Triangle, but also to adapt as market sophistication becomes more pronounced.

Our roots will always remain in Cambridge. It’s our home. We’ve advised landowners, investors and developers here before many of the university’s world renowned colleges were founded. And if anything, it’s been within that crucible that we’ve hammered out a fairly unusual array of services. Advice across the lifecycle of an asset, now inclusive of operational living, while growing successful practices in energy and natural capital. That’s what we’re aiming for.

Kelly Bream: The plan is to inject significant investment into the business over the next six years – seven figures annually. Introducing fresh working capital means that we can start seriously expanding the partnership, open new offices, invest in technology and penetrate new regional marketplaces where we are confident that we can sell multiple services in areas where our clients are already operating. We’re looking at hiring an additional 200-250 people across our practice areas. Where they’ll be based will ultimately depend on where the market opportunities are as we see them.

Are there specific asset classes, themes and or geographies you’re targeting, and how do these complement existing service lines?

NP: Our focus, or our concentration, will be on high-value markets in new and existing locations – and there are really two dimensions to that. In some regions we want to deepen our provision, to o"er a trinity of consultancy services including development, investment and land management. In others, we’re looking at ways to broaden our capabilities to capture a wider range of needs-based asset classes, like life sciences, renewables, and more recently operational living through the acquisition of Iain Murray’s Cortland Consult team.

We’re well known for our experience in the science and technology sectors. Scotland is where we’ve developed a multi-disciplinary planning and development practice to advise on large-scale energy infrastructure projects. But we’re alive to the fact that our services can appear quite atomised, and that we’re sometimes missing the stitching that could bind these together. The capital we’re bringing into this next stage of growth is there to correct this.

You mentioned operational living. What does your offering look like given your existing range of expertise, and to what extent was this decision motivated by your view of housing across the Oxford-Cambridge Arc?

KB: Entering into operational living is the next natural step for Bidwells – and not only on account of having strong residential and strategic land businesses. In general, we’re seeing immense appetite for the living sectors, be that BTR, PBSA, co-living or later living. Institutional capital is seeking high-yielding defensive assets that have inflation-hedging characteristics, and naturally with that comes the demand that our skillset can fulfil for value enhancement and asset management advice.

Our clients have already been coming to us because of our background in residential, and for a while we’ve wanted to accelerate how quickly we could create critical mass. Bringing in Cortland Consult made immediate sense in that context. Iain’s team already has a national presence, and there is synergy in acting for similar clients operating nationally.

NP: Our operational living consultancy will have a multitude of run-on services – from capital markets, fundraising support and deal sourcing, to development and project management, planning, and operations. Bringing in experts in the field who have transacted in these markets at a high level will cement our expertise.

On the energy and climate side, do you see any economies of scale with your established agribusiness, and will this be driven by your renewables practice in Scotland?

NP: It boils down to the basic idea that something good is worth replicating. We have an incredibly effective energy team operating predominantly in Scotland, which has been involved in some of the largest renewables projects nationwide. We want to bring that forte down south and blend it with our services on the land and development side.

There is undoubtedly a requirement for clean, green energy to decarbonise the property sector, given that it is one of the world’s largest polluters. But we also want to be involved at the cutting edge: battery storage; grid infrastructure; hydrogen, wind, solar across the UK; carbon credits and offsetting. We’re making a string of hires in the sustainability sector. These are huge opportunities, and they touch upon everything we do.

What are the trends and market tailwinds driving your expansion? 

KB: From a sustainability perspective, most businesses have committed to a 2030 net zero strategy – and it’s not long before they have to deliver. Sustainability also touches every aspect of the built environment. Renewable energy infrastructure and retrofitting of existing built stock – both are going to require unprecedented capex investment and be at the centre of domestic productivity policy. The UK is coming at both from a challenging base, given we have some of the oldest legacy assets in the world. And that is a monumental opportunity.

This ties in with our focus on natural capital, but also why we’ve successfully achieved B Corp status. Carbon sequestration is one of the demand drivers behind investment in agriculture and timberland as effective means of locking in carbon. Of course, there is an investment thesis, which centres around natural capital’s inflation-hedging characteristics and its non-correlation with bonds and equities, which makes it a great portfolio diversifier for investors. But considerations like carbon sequestration and biodiversity add to its appeal.

Looking at operational living, we see a clear rationale for long-term exposure. The way people are living is changing, and demographics are altering the dynamics of traditional homeownership. Institutions benefit from a “triple bottom line” of financial, social, and environmental value that is realised when investing in, say, build-to-rent, which is a significant part of balanced housing stock that promotes social mobility.

NP: We’re well known for our work in science and technology. We helped set up Cambridge Science Park, Europe’s first science park, in 1970. Although the US market is suffering, we see life sciences as an innovative, stable and geographically expansive sector with a depth of market demand from London to Liverpool that hasn’t been remotely satiated.

Does this signal a departure from what you’re known for, or a formalisation of a pivot you’ve already been undertaking? 

NP: It’s about growth. Growth of our service lines within our current geographies, the growth of services into new markets. It’s also about the succession plan of our partnership; restructuring our service lines and diversifying the partnership to accommodate greater cross-selling. We’ve been quietly investing in emerging sectors intensively over the past two years – especially our energy and renewables team – and we’ll do the same as we develop our operational living practice. The difference is that we’re bowling to take wickets more aggressively than we have in the past. 

What roles will both of you play in this next chapter for Bidwells? 

KB: Nick’s been senior partner for three years now, but has been in the practice for 20 years. When he joined the company when the project management team had a turnover of just £1.2m, and under his leadership, the PM team has grown to a £13m turnover. His deep understanding of the company’s DNA and his experience in scaling up business divisions make him an invaluable asset in guiding Bidwells through its next phase of growth. I’ll be the crane operator, manoeuvring the parts into place.

NP: Kelly has founded two businesses in operational real estate before and worked as operations director for FTSE 250 housebuilder, Berkeley Group, for more than eight years. She’s got the right blend of entrepreneurial spirit and large-scale operational experience to help drive the next group of partners coming through the ranks at Bidwells. As a relative newcomer to the company, Kelly is offering a fresh perspective and can draw upon her diverse experience to guide the partnership in new directions.