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Published: 18 April 2023

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Robert is a Chartered Surveyor and has been an RICS member for over 40 years. Having worked in London and locally for small and large private practices, it was when Stratton Creber became part of the corporate agency Lloyds/TSB in 1997 that he decided he didn’t like corporate governance and proceeded set up Robert Williams Ltd in January 1998.

“ I was very lucky that I had some very loyal clients and most importantly The Diocese of Exeter chose to retain my services for both lettings and professional valuation work.”

“ When we started in 1998 in Southernhay West, there was only me and a secretary but soon we were busy enough to hire help in the form of a junior negotiator. My first thought was to employ a student land agent but after having a few candidates for short periods none of them worked out too well.”

“ Next arrived Simon Havens, a fresh faced negotiator with real potential who spent a couple of successful years with us before leaving us to join GTH and becoming now the head of their whole residential team. After Simon I interviewed a high end car salesman named Steve Alford. Although I was concerned that he didn’t have any property experience, I needn’t have worried because Steve was excellent and became a good friend and a full partner in the business. During his 12 years with the company the business continued to thrive with more staff arriving.”

“After more than a dozen years Steve decided to move on to another role which gave him more time with his young family and in the meantime my eldest son Oliver had joined us after gaining a first class degree in Business from Manchester/ Vancouver Universities. He subsequently went on to gain a masters degree from Exeter University and I was confident enough in his ability to oversee the business, allowing me to start taking a back seat “

“Oliver has now been in charge for over 10 years and we have increased turnover nearly every year even though we have been through recessions and Covid years. I firmly believe that we have now our best team ever with Graham Coton as our sales director and Sarah Coleman heading up our lettings team. They are ably assisted by Suzanne and Alice in sales and Madeline and Kim in lettings.”

“Over recent years we have added our auction department which is run by our consultant Richard Copus who has as many years experience as myself, whilst I continue to carry out the professional valuations for The Diocese and other clients.”

“ So 25 years since I started the business we continue to be a family run outfit that strives to give our clients the best possible honest service we can and I am confident that Oliver will continue with the same ethos long after I retire.”