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Stress buster - Alan Whitehead - Principal

 

Apart from a few years as a baby, Alan Whitehead, Principal of Whitehead Francis Associates, has spent virtually the whole of his working life in the Business Relocation, Interior Fit Out and Refurbishment industry (e.g. offices, shops, warehouses, leisure facilities, etc.)

Alan started work at the tender age of 16 with a good
old-fashioned building company, Holland Hannan & Cubitts, (where his own father was a Senior Estimator) including works at Buckingham Palace and many other similar high class buildings.

He began his first business at the age of 21 providing various types of office partitions, etc. to clients including:- British Telecom, 3i, Sotheby's, Arab Insurance Group, Letts Diaries, NIG, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra & Weidenfeld Publishers.

Alan also got married to his `little Irish Colleen' at the age of 23 and had a beautiful son four years later.

AWProfile1

During the eleven years spent building & running this business, Alan also `rescued' and developed into modern offices a previously derelict four-storey Singer Sewing Machine factory in Southwark, London.

`Before’ - November 1980

`After’ - September 1985

Now - October 2008

Interplan-House-Before

Interplan-House-After

Interplan-House---Oct2008

Having sold this first business at a profit Alan then went into the burgeoning `Serviced Office' business, providing individual fully furnished offices to SMEs along with secretarial, copying & printing services. He also started the `Bureautel Business Club' which provided a `Virtual Office' presence for SMEs without their requiring any actual office space. Services included: Telephone Answering in own company name, Mail forwarding/collection, remote secretarial assistance, etc. - all before the advent of email!

Nigel Lawson put paid to this business in the early 90's with his continued chasing of the ERM, raising interest rates along the way up to a high of 17%!

Alan got out of the Serviced Office business to develop the `Bureautel' concept with the Friendly Hotels Group for a short period before going back into the Office Fit-Out & Refurbishment business.

He spent the next seven years or so helping to build his last company into a cash-positive, debt-free, highly profitable business where clients included:- Esure, Heineken UK, Marks & Spencer, ING-Barings, Nescot & Schal, He then felt the time was right for a change so sold out to his co-directors/shareholders to spend some time `smelling the roses'.

Having become disenchanted after a couple of months of doing nothing but play golf (he never thought he would ever hear himself saying that) Alan decided to take the plunge back into the world of commerce; this time utilizing his extensive knowledge and experience of the fit out and refurbishment industry to help end-user clients avoid the mistakes of getting too involved in their own office moves, fit outs or refurbishments! 

As a `Poacher-Turned-Gamekeeper' Alan is, along with his equally well qualified and experienced colleagues, more than qualified to advise end-user clients on how best to steer clear of the minefield of dealing with contractors and suppliers where they either haven't got the time and/or necessary expertise in-house to plan, co-ordinate and manage such projects themselves!

As well as a saving his clients a great deal of time, hassle and heartache from the outset, Alan also LOVES the fact that his `inside knowledge’ can be put to good use to help his clients to save some serious amounts of money along the way!

We CAN COST YOU
NOTHING!

Find out how on 0800 458 6578

Heineken Reception

Schal Offices

M & S Meeting Room

Cariplo Dealing Room

Cariplo Reception

Executive Offices

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Whitehead Francis Associates