Rapleys acquires retail agency team from Avison Young
Property consultancy firm Rapleys has acquired a team of six retail agency and investment agents from Avison Young as it looks to accelerate its growth.
Dan Kent, formerly principal and managing director of UK retail at Avison Young, has joined Rapleys as head of retail and an equity partner, bringing his whole team over.
Joining Kent are partners Scott Mitchell and Rob Fraser, senior surveyor Ella Traynor, and surveyor Rian Dunne, with an associate partner set to arrive in the near future. All team members will be based in Rapleys’ London office.
The team has extensive experience across out-of-town, high street, and shopping centre retail and leisure, retail investment as well as foodstores, where Rapleys is a market leader.
The team advises a number of large retail occupiers including Sainsbury’s, Argos, Boots, Boots Hearingcare, Sue Ryder and BFT (Body Fit Training). The team also advises major institutions, investors, developers, and high net worth clients including LondonMetric, Aberdeen, AXA , KFIM, Quadrant Estates, Manchester Airport Group, University of Sheffield , Kilo Properties, Alterity Investments, Augur Group, and NGM Inv.
Over the past two years, Rapleys has acquired five other businesses, including CSJ (planning), Aston Rose (commercial), Mellersh & Harding (commercial – office agency), Blue Brick Consultancy (building consultancy) and s106 Affordable Housing (residential).
It has also launched new services including Rapleys Living, a brand aimed at living sector development and agency, Utilities Consulting, which advises housebuilders on their utilities and connectivity strategy, and brought in new expertise in public sector, policy, data centres, and renewables amongst others.
The acquisition comes after Rapleys opened a new Cardiff office in January 2025 and made three further senior hires, with Chris Cook joining as partner in building consultancy and education, Dan Jones appointed as partner in project management and head of the Cardiff office, and Natalie Jordan hired as company secretary and member of the operations board.
Robert Clarke, senior partner at Rapleys, said: “Commercial is one of our core divisions, and we have been looking at ways to grow this part of the business, having already brought in Aston Rose and Mellersh & Harding. We are therefore delighted to bring in both an experienced and strategic retail head who is well known to the market to work with the existing senior teams in commercial, and a retail agency and investment team that will strengthen our retail services to clients, adding to our existing status as market leaders in foodstores.
“We know that the team are looking forward to working with us and share our values and collaborative culture as it’s always important to get the right fit in order to continue to grow sustainably and make the most of such opportunities for the benefit of the business as a whole. We have strong ambitions, and we will continue grow strategically across all of our divisions via both acquisition and recruitment to provide clients with the best action-oriented and unique advice in both the traditional and alternative property sectors.”
Dan Kent added: “Rapleys is one of the market leaders in the foodstore and roadside retail market with an impressive stable of existing clients and it has been looking to leverage its full-service expertise more fully across the wider retail sector. We are all delighted to bring a team of retail agency and investment experts to the business and we are excited about the opportunity to grow Rapleys market share in the retail sector with our combined experience, knowledge and capability. For me personally, I am also looking forward to taking on a new strategic role as head of retail where, like the wider business, we have further exciting and ambitious growth plans.”
Rapleys has been on a growth drive since relaunching the business in late 2022 with a refreshed brand. Over the past 18 months, Rapleys has invested in new prime premises in London, Cambridge, and Birmingham, in addition to launching its Cardiff office.