Mortgage bank breeds new consultancy firm
Everything about the headquarters is unblemished because until March 1, the company didn't exist. The five founders, Robert Pepłonski, Jacek Dziadek, Adam Cwynar, Paweł Adamiak and Artur Sikura, were all previously employees of the mortgage bank GE Mieszkanowy. The germ of the idea to set up on their own was sewn two years ago, according to Vic-President Jacek Dziadek, until the end of 2003 when the five finally summonsed the courage to go it alone.
"We were working for one bank and we saw that we were losing some customers who were looking for a different offer," says Dziadek, "so we decided that this was a good opportunity."
The five who broke away to establish Dom Kredytowy NOTUS, (the last word means 'trust' in Latin) are to act as mortgage and investment consultants, they hope, for some or all of the 3,500 customers, to begin with, that they had dealings with when working for GE Mieszkanowy. Their erstwhile employer will indeed be one of the banks they supply with custom.
"We are going to co-operate with a few banks," says Dziadek, "and GE Mieszkanowy is one of them. GE has a good offer but there are some customers who wouldn't get a loan there, so that's why we want to work with some more banks and offer a different product."
The people at Dom Kredytowy NOTUS claim that their customers can expect services that don't currently exist on the Polish mortgage consultancy market. The first thing they want to emphasize is that they won't be charging their clients any fees for giving them the advice they need before applying for a mortgage. Any profit the firm makes will come from the banks themselves.
"If you can build a portfolio of customers for the banks," argues Dziadek, "then you can negotiate a commission with them for that service." That, he is keen to insist, is not the practice of NOTUS' existing competitors, Expander and Oppenheim.
Unlike Dom Kreditowy NOTUS, Expander operates from street level premises into which passers by can walk, to ask for advice about taking out a mortgage. "We don't believe that companies which are based in back offices create a very good impression," says Expander consultant, Maciej Kossowski, with the new competitor in mind. His suspicion is also that its founders' previous involvement with GE Mieszkanowy, means that it will ultimately service that bank at the expense of others. "Our activities are broader," says Kossowski, "and customers have a wider choice, because we co-operate with around nineteen banks but also work with investment funds."
For their part, the board at NOTUS are committed to their 'back office' strategy, because they feel they can attract a more select breed of customer. Insisting that they have developers and real estate agents as close partners, who will usher potential customers their way, they believe that 'word of mouth' marketing is "always the best way", in Dziadek's words. "We won't be on the ground floor waiting for customers," he adds, "we have a different way of attracting them." NOTUS consultants will also take themselves beyond their own office, he claims, and meet customers wherever they feel most comfortable. And of the suggestion that they might be in some way in the pocket of their former employers, he remarks, "We don't sell bank products, we sell NOTUS products. We are an independent company and we advise independently."
"We were working for one bank and we saw that we were losing some customers who were looking for a different offer," says Dziadek, "so we decided that this was a good opportunity."
The five who broke away to establish Dom Kredytowy NOTUS, (the last word means 'trust' in Latin) are to act as mortgage and investment consultants, they hope, for some or all of the 3,500 customers, to begin with, that they had dealings with when working for GE Mieszkanowy. Their erstwhile employer will indeed be one of the banks they supply with custom.
"We are going to co-operate with a few banks," says Dziadek, "and GE Mieszkanowy is one of them. GE has a good offer but there are some customers who wouldn't get a loan there, so that's why we want to work with some more banks and offer a different product."
The people at Dom Kredytowy NOTUS claim that their customers can expect services that don't currently exist on the Polish mortgage consultancy market. The first thing they want to emphasize is that they won't be charging their clients any fees for giving them the advice they need before applying for a mortgage. Any profit the firm makes will come from the banks themselves.
"If you can build a portfolio of customers for the banks," argues Dziadek, "then you can negotiate a commission with them for that service." That, he is keen to insist, is not the practice of NOTUS' existing competitors, Expander and Oppenheim.
Unlike Dom Kreditowy NOTUS, Expander operates from street level premises into which passers by can walk, to ask for advice about taking out a mortgage. "We don't believe that companies which are based in back offices create a very good impression," says Expander consultant, Maciej Kossowski, with the new competitor in mind. His suspicion is also that its founders' previous involvement with GE Mieszkanowy, means that it will ultimately service that bank at the expense of others. "Our activities are broader," says Kossowski, "and customers have a wider choice, because we co-operate with around nineteen banks but also work with investment funds."
For their part, the board at NOTUS are committed to their 'back office' strategy, because they feel they can attract a more select breed of customer. Insisting that they have developers and real estate agents as close partners, who will usher potential customers their way, they believe that 'word of mouth' marketing is "always the best way", in Dziadek's words. "We won't be on the ground floor waiting for customers," he adds, "we have a different way of attracting them." NOTUS consultants will also take themselves beyond their own office, he claims, and meet customers wherever they feel most comfortable. And of the suggestion that they might be in some way in the pocket of their former employers, he remarks, "We don't sell bank products, we sell NOTUS products. We are an independent company and we advise independently."
