Three advisers on why they set up shop on the high street

If you take a walk along Cheltenham’s Bath Road for example, you may come across the pale pink shop front of Hudson Rose, a mortgage broker founded by Graham Taylor.

Located among the cafes and charity shops that also line the street, the branch is the third one to be opened by Taylor in the space of three years.

“My business is quite visual,” says Taylor. “We present ourselves to the world very differently to maybe most in our industry.” Having a high street presence therefore works with the Hudson Rose brand, he says. “It works with our approach and style.”

Besides a brightly coloured façade, Taylor attracts the attention of passers-by with a neon sign in each office featuring the firm’s tagline: ‘your mortgage our problem’. 

“They’re positioned in such a way that when you drive past, you see ‘your mortgage our problem’ written in big letters on the wall in neon pink, and those are on at night as well.”

Hudson Rose was founded five years ago, but for the first two years Taylor was based “out of the way” in a 6x3m room above an old mill building. In 2020, he opened his first branch in the south Cotswolds town of Nailsworth.

“People would look at the [Nailsworth] office that looks nothing like a mortgage adviser, then see that it was a mortgage broker’s, and then in their brain it would connect together.

“They wouldn’t need us, and then all of a sudden when they needed a mortgage, they’d think, ‘oh, it’s that brightly coloured shop on the high street’.”

While that 6x3m room bore the Hudson Rose branding, Taylor says it was not as colourful as he was not allowed to paint the walls, and it had no visibility from the road.

But now with a high street presence in three different towns, roughly a quarter of business comes from people who have seen a Hudson Rose shop front.

“The Cheltenham [branch] is on the busiest street. At the moment, we’ve only really been here three or four months, but I would get two or three a week easily. Everything from people coming in saying ‘I need to get some insurance because I’ve just gone self-employed’, to ‘I’ve got three mortgaged buy-to-lets’.”

The people who want face-to-face meetings the most, Taylor adds, are young people. “They live their whole life online, and getting a mortgage of £200,000 or whatever is going to be a big scary experience.

“If you can come into a nice office, sit down, have a beer or a coffee and just chat to someone who knows what they’re doing, you walk away from that thinking, ‘yeah okay, they’re there, they’re there to help’.

“I’ve been a phone broker for many years, but I think it adds an extra dimension.”

Almost 100 miles away in London and the South East meanwhile, wealth manager Killik & Co has also received new enquiries from people who pass by one of its branches. “Our new concept stores, ‘House of Killik’, were designed to better engage with local communities,” says deputy senior partner, Georgie Killik.

“Our first, on Northcote Road [in Battersea] was our opportunity to reimagine the branch network of the future, and we consciously built a space that met the needs of the people that live nearby; lots of light, fewer desks, beautiful furniture and an informed but approachable team to run it.

A pavement shop front is a more inviting space to walk into for those who are intimidated by big corporate officesGeorgie Killik, Killik & Co

“As a result we have seen significant new enquiries from the passing footfall, and have built a strong local client base.”

A pavement shop front is also a more inviting space to walk into for those who are intimidated by big corporate offices, says Killik, and having a shop front is like having a billboard.

“When people pass our houses, we want what they see inside to be a visual representation of who we are and the quality of service we offer.”

Further down south in East Sussex, Cranwell Wealth Solutions has also garnered a client base local to its high street branches.

“Many of the clients we work with live fairly locally to our two high street branches in Uckfield and Heathfield, so we wanted to offer them the most convenient way to come and meet with us, either via a more formal appointment or a casual drop in,” says founder Stephen Palmer.

“By basing ourselves right in the high street within the local community where many of our clients live, we can be here for them to offer financial advice at the same time as they run errands in the local town.

“We do of course still offer all other forms of appointments – in their home, on the phone or via video call – but we find our clients love the flexibility of popping in to see us at the same time as perhaps running to the post office or bank.”

Like Taylor and Killik, Palmer has also found that having a high street office has helped to raise awareness of advice, and attract new clients. “While initially set up to offer the most flexibility we could to our existing clients, we have found our high street offering has become our best marketing tool.

“Our high street branches capture passing footfall and we use our shop window to promote our various services. We also find people tend to simply drop in more often and ask if we can help.

“We have also found that by having a high street presence, we are far better placed to then take part in local community events, either via sponsorship or booking an exhibition space to further spread the word about our business.”

We can be here for them to offer financial advice at the same time as they run errands in the local town.Stephen Palmer, Cranwell Wealth Solutions

And as Taylor at Hudson Rose puts it, financial services is part of the community. “We talk a lot about saving the high street and shops closing. I’m in a part of the world, in Stroud, which is famous for its independent high street.

“The one thing that I think’s been forgotten about from that dialogue is financial services. Financial services is part of the community.”

Chloe Cheung is a senior features writer at FTAdviser