The family-run business is known across the north west
Ashtons Estate Agents, pictured at their St Helens branch, is celebrating 20 years of business. Pictured, director Nick Johnson with staff(Image: Photo by Colin Lane)
A family-run estate agents that has been named “the best” is now celebrating two decades in business. It was back in 2005 that Ashtons Estate Agents started from humble beginnings and opened their first branch – and they’ve continued to go from strength to strength.
With offices now in Great Sankey, St. Helens, Widnes, Stockton Heath, Leigh, Eccleston, Culcheth, Padgate, Ashton-In-Makerfield, Newton-Le-Willows – and an 11th on the way – the team have spent the last 20 years helping people from across our region and beyond sell and buy their dream homes. First spreading the word through hand delivering flyers and letters, Ashtons was founded by Steve Price and his three sons Kristian, Ben and Sam.
Steve and Kristian are still at the heart of the business and in later years, Ben and Sam Price set up their own company, Heatable. Ashtons is named after the house the family grew up in, called Ash Cottage and in their time, the estate agents have also won numerous awards, as well as appearing on Homes Under the Hammer.
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Now celebrating their 20th year, director Nick Johnson, 40, from Warrington, told the Liverpool ECHO: “It is still to this day a family owned business. Kristian Derrick, our managing director and his dad Steve Price, they were the original two founding members.
“They set up our first office 20 years ago this year in Padgate, Warrington. We’re a traditional estate agency with a very nice personal touch.
Director Nick Johnson outside their St Helens Branch(Image: Photo by Colin Lane)
“We pride ourselves on being a family owned company and just trying to keep to the same mentality that we had when we opened 20 years ago – even though we’ve grown quite considerably. We pride ourselves on offering a really personal service with local staff.
“We always treat people like we would like to be treated if we were looking at purchasing our own home. And I think that’s really worked well for us over the last 20 years – it’s been a huge part of our success.”
Over the last two decades, Ashtons has continued to expand, but has also seen change in everything from the housing market to trends and more. Nick said: “When we originally opened, we had a really positive few months and then the credit crunch happened and 2008 obviously was a really bad time for house selling.
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“It went from an incredibly great start to an incredibly tough period. I think a lot of estate agencies ended up going out of business over that period. But still to this day, we still pride ourselves on being early pioneers of new trends.
“We were one of the first estate agents locally to introduce free floorplans for every home. This may seem like an standard addition to property details these days, but the introduction of Laser Measurers meant we were able to quickly and correctly produce accurate floorplans for every home – no matter how big or small.
“From day one we only used Digital SLR Cameras and with slightly wider lenses we were able to catch the rooms of our properties in their best light. You think in today’s day and age now that is quite basic – but 20 years ago, we were one of the first people to do it.
Ashtons Estate Agents is celebrating 20 years(Image: Photo by Colin Lane)
“That was always a big, unique selling point for us as well. People’s expectations are getting bigger and bigger with what they expect for in the house.
“We’ve operated in new areas and across the board people are just looking for a great family home for themselves, which hopefully we’ve got on the books for them.” Over the last 20 years, Ashtons have not only seen new customers as they have expanded and opened new branches, but have welcomed generations through their doors.
Nick said: “We’ve sold houses numerous times for people, we’ve had three generations of people buying houses from us now. That’s the exciting part and there’s obviously some sad parts as well for people who we’ve sold for who are unfortunately no longer with us, but the family have still trusted us to sell that property.
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“My wife always finds it absolutely bonkers when we’re out doing shopping and I’m talking to someone like a lifelong friend for 15 minutes and then she asked me where I know him from and it was I sold the house for him two years ago. Every person is looking for their dream home, whether that be for £100,000 or £2m – and every person’s journey is the most important journey for them.”
Recently, Ashtons estate agents were crowned the “best estate agent” for the seventh year in a row by the Best Estate Agent Guide. To celebrate their 20th anniversary, the team are ending the year with a huge Christmas party, to hopefully coincide with the opening of their 11th site, which will be in Runcorn.
Nick added: “I’ve got two young children and they absolutely love spotting Ashtons boards. We could be in such a large area now where we’re still seeing them.
“Everyone is great friends who works here, all of our offices are interconnected, all of our work functions are – so it doesn’t have the feel of such a large company. It’s a surreal moment when you’re looking back thinking, We sell as many houses that we do and we have 11 offices that cover such a large area.”
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