Hi, Sally, how are you?

 

I'm very well. Thank you. Lovely sunny day today!

 

Very nice. I wanted to talk to you about the recent purchase by Broadway Marion of your firm. You're joining Broadway Malyan as Stitch. How did this all come about?

 

Well, I have, over the years, many times, tried to find either a partner for my business, or to join another practice. It's always been something on my radar, because I started Stitch as a sole director and observed other practices where partners met at university and built up their careers together. But I didn't have that opportunity, so I've been trying to do it another way, and it's always been quite difficult. I've had long conversations with a couple of practices that didn't really evolve into anything. And then I was having coffee with a friend who's very well connected in the industry, and she asked me the question: "Have you have you ever looked at joining another practice?". Because I think I was moaning about how tough everything was! I think that was sort of early last year, and she said: "Oh, I could introduce you to someone". And then a couple of months later, I met Ian Apsley, who is the CEO at Broadway Malyan, and we had a fantastic meeting. We talked for two hours instead of one, and it was a real meeting of minds. That's what started the whole process; it was eight months of conversations and agreements and legal processes, and now we're sat here in the office with them. 

 

So partly, I suppose, it's as a direct result of the difficult economic conditions. Partly you were looking for security, but partly something excited you, presumably, about this particular practice. Or it was a sort of meeting of minds, a personal thing?

 

I think it's a mixture of both. I mean, obviously, as soon as I heard which practice this friend was talking about, I did quite a lot of research about them. And, I mean, obviously, they're an excellent practice, and it was all good news. But I did think to myself before I met Ian, this is either going to go well, or it's not. You know, it's about chemistry, really, isn't it, in the end? And knowing whether you're on the same track, and that you have the same attitude towards architecture and business. Obviously, I wouldn't have gone to the meeting in the first place if I didn't think that Broadway Malyan was a good practice. And secondly, more importantly, it was the meeting of minds.

 

And so mentally, how has the transition been so far from running your own practice to being part of something bigger?

 

Well, it's quite a long process, because obviously, you know, I started thinking about it when we started talking and preparing myself. And so, I've been through all the peaks and troughs of panic and excitement (laughs). And by the time we actually moved in here, it sort of felt like a very natural and easy move, and I feel very excited and kind of relieved as well. It's great to have all the support of a big organization. You know, I don't have to be head of HR and marketing and finance and everything else anymore, because there's someone else who's much better at just doing that job. And so, it feels like I can actually do what I'm really good at now. 

 

Yes. So, you're back to the coalface instead of all that time running the business, right? 

 

Exactly. Yes. So, it's a real unlocking of potential, I think.

 

So, what's the plan? What projects will you be working on there?

 

Well, we will be carrying on with projects - work actually did start picking up towards the end of last year. So, we've got a couple of decent sized projects. We're a small team. There's only four of us, so we are carrying on as normal with those. But within the first - we've only been here for two and a half weeks, three weeks - we've got two really good new leads with other directors in the business who have come to us and said: "How about pitching for this?" So those are both outside of London and, really, really interesting. And then we've also got another team at Broadway Malyan to pitch to deliver one of our projects, which is something that we've never been able to do before. So that's kind of one of the big catalysts, really; finding with some of our clients that are hiring architects but could only go up to planning was what we've always done. It was a bit of a risk, because they want to have that golden thread of the same architect all the way through to delivery. And although one of our clients, kind of dropped us and we said, we can do this, we've got partners, we can deliver, we can do everything you need. And they just said, "No, our investors want an architect that can deliver". So now what's really positive is that we can offer that service through the Broadway Malyan team, and we've actually just done a few proposals to deliver one of our projects, which is really great. So, it's kind of working both ways. They're bringing projects into our portfolio and we're bringing projects into theirs, and this is only in the third week.

 

Wow. Busy, busy! So, finally, the last time we spoke, you were launching a scholarship trust, and I just wanted to know how that's going?

 

Well, that was, I think, 2021 or 2022 that we first spoke, and since then, we've done really well. We've got eight students now that are supported by the scholarship. Last year was not good. We didn't even open applications last year because we didn't have any funding come in. We did have one direct scholarship awarded through Berkeley Homes, and we actually found that student for them. So last year was very disappointing, and this year is completely different. We find out in the next couple of weeks; we've got a major sponsor, sponsoring three scholarships, and we've got another one, and we're hoping to get more in, and applications are open. So, it's a good time for you to ask the question, because we really want to maximize applications this year, because we have a lot of scholarships to offer, which is really fantastic. And being here at Broadway Malyan is brilliant as well, because the marketing team are taking on all of that promotional side and spreading the word for us, which you'll probably see on social media as well. I think it's just giving us a really good leg up, and more exposure, hopefully, going forward.

 

Final, final question, the name Stitch; what happens to that because it's very good name. Does it disappear? 

 

No. Stitch is still very much a business. We've got our sign up outside the office, and it's still, you know, in companies House a business just that it's just owned by Broadway Malyan instead of me and carrying on very much as a brand. I mean, that's one of the big appeals about Broadway Malyan is that it's not a kind of melting pot. They didn't acquire us because of growth. It was very much about having a collective of talent. Will and Partners was an acquisition a couple of years ago, and they still have their brand. It is still very strong, and that was probably one of the reasons why I thought that this would work, because that was one of my red lines, really; to keep the brand and to keep my team. And yeah, that's all very much in place.

 

Lovely. Well, congratulations, and I look forward to speaking to you a bit further down the line to see how it's all stitching in even more - to coin a terrible, terrible pun,

 

(laughs) Okay, thanks so much, David. 

 

Thanks Sally. Bye.