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The once growth adviser to former McGrath franchise heavyweight Shane Smollen has resigned from his current position with another high-profile real estate network and will return to his hometown in Queensland.
Peter Sissons has resigned from his role as head of national growth and business development at Belle Property, and he will head back to Brisbane to be closer to his family.
Mr Sissons joined McGrath franchise owner Shane Smollen as director of sales in 2012, prior to Mr Smollen’s well-reported sale of his 10 franchise offices back to McGrath in late 2015.
Mr Sissons said that he helped grow the 10 McGrath “Smollen” offices from $20 million to $50 million in revenue.
In 2016, the agent moved to Belle Property and assisted the company’s franchisee network to build their businesses.
He said that his efforts here resulted in the national group recording a 25 per cent growth in commission revenues in FY17.
Rescue
Word had it late last year that Shane Smollen and John McGrath were planning a rescue job on the beleaguered McGrath Estate Agents group by combining their shareholding, buying out the remaining shareholders and returning the company to “private hands”.
The Australian Financial Review reported in November 2017 that Mr McGrath’s share, which is the company’s biggest at 25.9 per cent, combined with Mr Smollen’s 8.9 per cent, would give the pair more than a third of the total. It added that they would only need to raise “about $50 million” to buy back all of the shares, provided that the other shareholders agreed to sell.
Also at the time, a McGrath company spokesperson said that “we have absolutely no knowledge of these plans”.
Although Mr McGrath has been actively reducing his industry responsibilities, including most recently resigning from the REA Group board, there has been no further development on the AFR report.
Mr Sissons moved to Sydney in 2012 after selling his independent agency in Brisbane, which he operated for 22 years.
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