Century 21 sets out is stall

Century 21 is set to enter market, and the company says it wants to avoid the mistakes made by its fellow American franchiser, Coldwell Banker. While Coldwell has not signed a single franchise contract after a year in Poland, Century 21 is kicking off its operations with two known Polish agents in its ranks - K&G Partners, owned by Katarzyna Kwiatkowska, and Polanowscy Nieruchomoœci, which belongs to Adam Polanowski. By the end of this year the company wants to have 10 agents in its network.

"What Coldwell did is a classic example of an unsuccessful launch and how one can spoil a brand," says Polanowski. "Coldwell started with antagonizing the real-estate agents. Now, if I were in their shoes, I would look for a crisis PR agency," he says. The new managing director and member of the managemnt board at Coldwell Banker, Marek Stelmaszak, argues that "only a cow does not make any mistakes."

The two companies may be fierce competitors, but both are brands owned by Cendant, one of the world's largest real-estate brokerage franchisers. Asked why he, as an agent, did not yield to Coldwell Banker's proposition, Polanowski says that there was no such offer.

"The fact that both companies belong to the same group does not mean anything. They will be competing if they really start to exist on the Polish real-estate market. It has to be remembered that in the recent years we have had many attempts by franchise companies to enter our market and now further networks are also talking about entering Poland," comments Janusz Iracki, the president of Maxon Nieruchomoœci, a real estate agent who was also considering entering a franchise network.

Century 21 hope to capitalize on the market by offering agents lower costs. "The accession costs at Coldwell Banker were enormous. Century 21 is expensive too, but they are much more flexible," says Jerzy Sobański, the deputy president of the Association of Warsaw Real Estate Agents (WSPON).

At the same time Century 21 representives, including Polanowski, do not deny the possibility of cooperating with Coldwell Banker. "Perhaps some talks will take place. This would be beneficial for the clients," they say.

"The Polish property market is already mature enough to accept real-estate franchise systems. The opening of Century 21 is no surprise, the company will soon have a number of franchise offices in its system. Coldwell Banker Polska will offer the very best systems for its partners - property brokers and their clients. We will offer products that are unparalelled in any franchise system in the world," says Stelmaszak.

"Century 21 has a good beginning," says Sobański. According to him the large franchise networks could instill order in the somewhat chaotic activity of real-estate agents in Poland. They will also force both the agents and customers to obey the law. As the owner of Akces Nieruchomoœci, which associates 100 licensed agents, Sobański stresses that the adventage of the big franchise companies is the force of their advertising: "We are not able to spend as much as they can on advertising." Century 21 spends about $67 (zł.207) million on advertising every year.

Agnieszka Barteczko