In its last financial year, Bruntwood increased its new lettings by 28 per cent and its overall turnover by 3 per cent.

The company manages over 100 office buildings across Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and Leeds, and despite the market conditions over the last few years it has managed to increase its dominance and power in the industry.

Chief Executive of Bruntwood, Chris Oglesby, said: “Despite a tough market and stiff competition, we have delivered a very impressive increase in new lettings with a record year in Greater Manchester and continued success in our other three cities, Birmingham, Leeds and Liverpool, where we have attracted significant new occupiers. I am proud of the way that the team at Bruntwood have once again responded in delivering another very good set of results.”

But this ‘record year’ in Manchester comes as little surprise to those working and living alongside Bruntwood. Eugene Esterkin, MD of Manchester-based Affirmative Finance, noted that Bruntwood’s model, as well as Manchester’s strength in comparison to the rest of the UK (excluding London), had both contributed to the positive figures.

“The company is extremely well run and uses an effective business model. It is flexible, in that it accommodates both short and long-term lenders and it is also imposes less restrictions on its tenants than over letting agencies.”

He added: “Manchester is often seen as being the capital of the North of England by foreign investors and, in comparison to other big cities, has done well throughout the recession. It does not surprise me that the combination of Bruntwood’s clever model and Manchester’s strength would yield these results.”

Yet despite such positive increases in its value and its number of new lettings, Bruntwood confirmed that its net profit had actually dropped slightly to £11.1 million.

This fall though, may be due to the fact that the company also made a number of acquisitions in 2010, purchasing new properties in Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham.

Chris Oglesby said: “Although the market appears to be awash with bargains at the moment, on closer scrutiny, there is very little stock offering value of any quality. Despite this, we were able to dig out three high quality buildings which we believe offer exceptional value across the cycle.

“We are pleased to be acquiring properties again and are keen to extend our customer focused business model across the major UK regional cities. We work hard to be seen as our customers’ property partner, rather than their landlord and focus all our efforts on creating the right environments for them to succeed. Put simply, we know that our success and growth is inextricably linked to theirs.”