Throwback to UK Trip January / February 2022

Trip to the UK – A 4-week business trip 

For a long time, the pandemic had prevented us and the rest of the world from travelling. It is not an easy task to run a business while living in a completely different country. But as soon as the opportunity arose, Thomas and Daniel travelled to the UK to make up for lost time. 

On this trip, the two travelled more than 2,000km on the roads and spent more than 24 hours on trains. This was necessary to make all the planned meetings which spanned over 4 weeks. Even then, there were still 2-4 meetings per day and some at the weekends.  

Who we met and what we learned from our trip 

The first stop of the trip was Swindon. There Daniel and Thomas met their accountant Rosie and discussed the future planned projects and the annual report on the status of the company. In London, Daniel and Thomas met Nick. Nick is the foreign exchange broker for Pillar-X and is very knowledgeable about the UK property market. On the way, Daniel and Thomas also visited their properties in Reading, which are specially designed for people in need. 

It was also very important for them to travel all the way to Edinburgh, because Jordan lives there, who supported Thomas and Daniel as a coach and has accompanied Pillar-X since the very beginning. Not far away in Glasgow was also an important part of the trip. 

In Glasgow, there were meetings with all members of the Power Team after Daniel and Thomas visited their invested properties in the city region.. In Greenock, they were very kindly taken out for dinner by Mary and Scott, of Corbett & Shields who manage their many properties in the area. They also made time to catch up with Michelle who is Pillar-X’s lawyer and was of course another important part of the trip to Glasgow. Last but not least, Daniel and Thomas met with Gordan and James of Alliance Properties at the Marriott Hotel in Glasgow. Gordon and James have sourced many successful properties for Pillar-X and so they talked at length about new projects and the property market in general.     

Next stop was Sheffield/Retford, where Thomas and Daniel wanted to pick up a rental car, but found that there was not a single rental car left in the whole city. However, this led to an interesting meeting with Ashley and Tom, who are currently renovating their own property. Daniel and Thomas first got in contact with Ashley in 2020 as they were intrigued about her property investments and so have been ‘property’ friends ever since. Thomas and Daniel were kindly given a tour of the city by the two. Next on the list was Exeter were the two travelled there by train.  

In Exeter, Daniel and Thomas met Saran. Saran is an acquaintance that came about through LinkedIn. Saran is also a property investor and has had crucial experience in Keighley, which has been invaluable to Daniel and Thomas, particularly with them investing in the area.  

Bradford is currently Pillar-X’s main investment area. For this reason, there naturally had to be a stop there. There, Daniel and Thomas met Rob and James for coffee and discussed the Low Street project, which was nearing completion. They also met Jackie in the area. Jackie (Jackie Collier Property) is Pillar-X’s property sourcing agent for the Bradford area and has been part of the Power Team pretty much from the off. Jackie is also developing property and showed Thomas and Daniel around Keighley and Haworth. In the end, a visit to Low Street and Rawling Street rounded off the stop in the area.  

Last but not least is the main destination of the trip, Liverpool.  Louise had just started working at Pillar-X in February. So, Daniel and Thomas were keen to meet her face to face on her first day to introduce her properly to Pillar-X and plan future collaboration. Together they visited many properties on an Orientation Day spent with Andrew Dorian of Avantus Properties, their Liverpool property sourcing agent. Andrew accompanied the three for a tour of the Wallasey project, which is Pillar-X’s biggest project to date and is nearly at completion. Mark and Fran were also in Liverpool. Mark and Fran are Daniel and Thomas’ mortgage brokers and generally, the talk was about the possible interest rate rises, which few people were aware of at the time. Ben and Reese, who are Directors of Passion Productions, a digital media agency based in Liverpool.  The opportunity was taken with Ben and Reece to conduct a photoshoot and create some media content of the local Wallasey Project but also as a Team Ben and Reece are due to re visit the Wallasey project in the future. Finally, Daniel and Thomas ended their Liverpool tour with meeting up Adam who is their important IT and Website support and surprisingly didn’t talk about the work. 

At the end of the trip, Daniel and Thomas spent a few days in London and met private friends. The end of the trip was an evening in a London steakhouse in Leicester Square. Afterward, they went back to Switzerland by plane. 

In conclusion, we believe that regular trips to the UK by Daniel and Thomas are essential for the future growth of the company. By visiting power teams, building relationships and learning from the best, they can ensure that their business continues to thrive and succeed.