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Since 1840 surveying firm Bidwells has been quietly building a reputation in East Anglia. We find out the secret of its success and what plans are in store for the future 'We offer clients a West End service with a local flavour,' says John Tweddle, Bidwells' commercial chairman, before immediately bursting in laughter at how corny he sounds.

Despite his self-deprecating sense of humour, that West End maxim, combined with a liberal sprinkling of 'local flavour', is the secret recipe that has ensured the East Anglian surveying firm's survival since it was created in 1840.

Today, East Anglia, and particularly the city of Cambridge, has remained close to the heart of the Bidwells operation, more than 160 years after Charles Muriel Bidwell set up the company from an office in Ely. With a payroll of 320 people and operating from five different offices, the firm is the largest property operation with a headquarters outside London.

Most chairmen would be happy with this situation, but not Tweddle. Here he tells Property Week the secret of the firm's success and reveals how it is poised to tackle new territory to build on its market dominance in East Anglia.

From his office in the heart of Cambridge, Tweddle looks at ease with his surroundings. This is not surprising considering the fact that he joined the firm 33 years ago straight from college, and has remained there since.

During that time he has witnessed Cambridge's transformation from a university city to one of the hi-tech capitals of Europe. This transformation coincided with the surveying firm shifting its focus, from being a firm of land agents for Cambridge University colleges and East Anglian farmers 25 years ago to being the commercially focused behemoth that it is today.

'We started out with a mission to dominate a geographical region and it has worked very well for us,' says Tweddle. 'My aim is to make Bidwells the first port of call for anyone looking to come to the eastern region. If Prudential has a problem with an investment in Ipswich then we want them to think of Bidwells.

'When Standard Life wants to do more out-of-town retail parks in the region we want them to think Bidwells. If one of the Cambridge colleges wants to do something then we want them to think, "we must use Bidwells". It is a very simple philosophy that has put us well on the way to being a dominant force in the region, but there is still a lot of work to be done.'

Part of this market dominance strategy has been to set up offices in the region's main commercial centres. The first of these was in Norwich in 1989, which was closely followed by an Ipswich office in 1990 on the back of two projects – the purchase of a large estate of land at Felixstowe Docks for Trinity College, and the development of the technology hub at Martlesham Heath where the firm's current office is based.

Ironically, the firm's first office outside of Cambridgeshire was set up in 1985 in London's West End. A small investment team is based there which deals with East Anglia. The office is led by Patrick McMahon, who is head of investment and business space. He joined Bidwells 10 years ago, after working for Barclays bank's property division.

'We have taken in a lot of people from the West End over the years and we have a policy of going for quality,' explains McMahon. 'We constantly look at the big West End agents and forge dialogue with them. Once they get to the stage where they have two kids and don't want to be in London anymore but still want a prestigious location, we talk to them and help them build up an affinity with the area. This is the kind of high-calibre staff that we are looking for.'

All of Bidwells' team leaders are ex-West End operators, which helps the firm deliver on its 'West End service with a local flavour' promise.

The team culture environment is also something that is high on the company's agenda. Bidwells operates a commission structure based on the work completed by the team rather than the individuals within it, which is something that Tweddle says has helped them to provide a more professional service.

'Team culture is everything,' he explains. 'Our clients feel the benefits of this culture and they like it. No one in this office is allowed to talk about "my clients". They are all "our clients" and we have to look after them carefully.'

Some of the most lucrative clients on the firm's books are the Cambridge University colleges, which are big landowners in the region. The firm is retained by 20 colleges, for which it carries out the majority of their property portfolio work.

Tweddle is also particularly proud of the fact that in the past the firm helped local entrepreneur Sir Clive Sinclair with his property requirements and also sourced premises for computer firm Acorn, which grew from a small Cambridgeshire base into a large multinational corporation. The firm also advises Ipswich Town Football Club on the management of its property. As a Leeds United fan, Tweddle is suitably coy about this instruction.

Much of Bidwells' other work comes from the publication of research. Tweddle says that the biannual 'databook', which focuses on Cambridge, Ipswich and Norwich, acts as a draw for pension funds and institutions when they are looking at increasing their investment exposure in the area.

'We have a very restricted client base and we like to keep it special so that we can offer a tailored service. There is a hell of a lot of interest in this region, in particular for Cambridge, and if institutions want to access the local market then we can set up a strategy for them.'

As for Bidwells' own strategy, expansion is very much on the cards. 'We are always looking to expand and keep on growing, because you cannot retain a quality workforce unless you are going forward,' says Tweddle. 'There are more things that we can do in the area but we are also looking to expand the region we cover. I would be very surprised if within the next 12 to 18 months we don't go elsewhere.'

He adds that they cannot go further east because they already have a monopoly on that area, so the natural choice would be towards the west and around the M25. Tweddle envisages acquiring an established company that knows the market well and that would fit within Bidwells' philosophy.

'We always go for market knowledge, and for top-quality people that know a market well and everything that hangs off it,' he explains.

By going down this route, Tweddle hopes to ensure that Bidwells upholds its West End pledge and continues to deliver the local flavour that has been so crucial to its longevity.

Charles Muriel Bidwell was set for a life as a brewer until the death of his father in 1829. He was due to inherit the brewing interests of the Bidwells – an already prominent East Anglian family – but the brewing business was sold to provide for the 15-year-old Charles’s mother and his seven brothers and sisters. At the age of 26 he set up a chartered surveying firm in Ely. The business prospered during the second half of the 19th century because of the draining of the Fens, the arrival of the railways and the improvement in public health and sanitation in Ely. After his marriage in 1844 Charles had 13 children. Two of his sons, Charles Jnr and Shelford, went on to play an active part in the advancement of the business. Charles Jnr took over the running of the firm in 1874 and his clients included the Great Northern Railways Company and several Cambridge University colleges. Following his death in 1922, Charles Jnr’s sons John (pictured left) and Philip, who were already involved in the practice, carried on the business in his name. An obituary in the Journal of Surveyors’ Institutions reported at the time: ‘The character which secured for him the place he occupied in his profession and which made him an ever-widening circle of friends was well expressed in his burly figure and fine presence. There was nothing small about him.’ Like his father before him, John Bidwell, the eldest of his two sons, became president of the RICS. He remained active in the firm until the age of 90 and his retirement in 1960 marked the end of active involvement by members of the Bidwell family in the firm.