February 2012

IN CONVERSATION

...with Jennifer Tallon

Twenty-one years ago, Jennifer Tallon set up Acanthus Property Letting Services, one of Southwold’s success stories. Last September was a major milestone for both herself and the company when she retired and handed the running of the company over to her daughter. Whatever your opinion about holiday lets in Southwold, Jennifer has been a mover and shaker in our area and I wanted to find out more, which is why I visited her at her delightful Shadingfield house one morning last month.

What are your roots?

I come from a small Essex village near Colchester and my father was a strawberry grower there, supplying the makers of Wilkins’ Jams. I have been in this part of the world for just over 39 years.

I was contacted by an Australian lady about a year ago, who was a second cousin of mine I didn’t know existed, enquiring about ancestry. It was really stunning for me because I had never heard of any of that branch. I knew a lot about the family. We were a military family, an army family, so I didn’t think in a million years that we came from this part. But it happens that she sent me a photograph of a gravestone of one of my ancestors in Sotterley churchyard. It is not far from my house at all – across the road and down a path! My ancestors trace back to the 16th century, so I actually was called back here to this part of the world from Essex, I must have been!

It transpired that one of them lived in Colchester, one was the keyholder of the Tower of London, when one of the kings was incarcerated there, and one of them sailed as a buccaneer. All sorts of things are coming up there, and the work is still ongoing. They forced my hand to find out about it on their behalf. The interesting thing is that it turns out that we can trace the line back to before the Norman Conquest in 1066, about 50–100 years before, although we think came over from France originally. Quite extraordinary.

How did it all start?

I started Acanthus Home Care originally, which was mainly day care and looking after people’s houses, and a cleaning company to clean people’s houses.

So that’s how things started. I had an office at 9 Trinity Street, which I shared with a person whose business I had bought. When they retired, I bought the property and took over their holiday letting division.

Gradually Acanthus Home Care faded away and the other one took off from the ashes really because it was run down. It was hard work.

Was this something you’ve always wanted to do?

It sort of nudged me in this direction really because prior to that I was a medical secretary, and had had some lovely jobs in that field; a lot of them to do with the artistic side I have, which was rather nice. My artistic side was put on hold really because my business side, which I didn’t realise I had at the time, took over everything once it became successful.

I had to work very hard to get that business up and running because it was a failing business, which took some while to do.

As you are dealing with people all the time and everyone is so different, you have to be a person who is pretty diplomatic and a bit thick skinned in some ways because you cannot be a shrinking violet.

Was there much competition?

No, not in those days. Acanthus was one of the first proper holiday-letting companies in Southwold. We were certainly the first most professional company because we always aimed for the best. That meant in those days that it was pretty hard going because it was a struggle all the time.

It paid off because Acanthus became bigger and bigger, and we had lots of staff work there through the years. Eventually Rebecca (my daughter) took over the business because I was getting well, well past retirement age! This is nice because it is still in the family, which I feel is important. It has an excellent name now.

I have had some wonderful tributes paid to the business, particularly on our anniversary, when the then MP, John Gummer, came and was very sincere. He had obviously done a lot of homework and knew us very well before he had even met us. He was very complimentary that time, which was great. Always nice to be appreciated.

How did you expand Acanthus’s property portfolio?

We have had many, many people coming to us to offer their properties for lets as they did not want to do anything with these themselves. My love of design and home making took over because a lot of them wanted advice, not only on the commercial and financial sides, but also what to do in a house to make it absolutely right for holiday lets. I actually took on two properties and did complete refurbishments for the owners at that time, right down to the last teaspoon.

Most owners are very good and take our advice because they know we are doing it in their best interests, so they will really try and do everything we advise. We do it in a gentle but fairly firm way because not everyone has the same tastes or ideas. It always works well for them, and when they see that happen then that is fine

I do own a house in Southwold myself, but other people own most properties on the portfolio. In general we are helping them to maximize the potential of their properties. If they ask for advice, we used to give it free of charge, even though there was a terrific load of man hours involved in the delivery of furniture, choosing the furniture for them, colours, curtains, everything. I didn’t mind it because it still fed the side of my psyche that needed that, as well as the office, everyday business world.

I expanded quite a bit further afield about 15 years ago, down to the Dunwich area and so forth. As the business got bigger, it became more and more difficult to monitor those properties. Because we are perfectionists, we wanted to make sure everything was all right, so we drew back into Southwold mainly for a few years. We have now gone on to take a few rural properties, but they are crème de la crème-type properties, for the top end of the market. In the last few years, we have also aimed for that sort of property in Southwold. It does not have to be enormous, but it could be something really charming that has been done out in an unusual way.

We are moving towards the top end of the market, wanting to be as caring and careful about the properties as we could be. We want people to enjoy their holidays, and introduce more services in addition to just having a let. For instance, we put wine, flowers, little hampers and things like that in our properties. Anything to make them have a better holiday.

Have you found that the market has got more difficult recently?

I think our name goes before us and we have many repeat bookings. We have not noticed any fall off in any demand at all; quite the opposite. Already most of the properties have been already booked for this year. 

There is something for everybody on our books, from single-bedroom up to 14- to 21-size houses, and I hope there is some price range for everybody as well in the catalogue.

You must be doing something right if you are constantly getting repeat bookings

I think we still have a huge contact with people, which perhaps our competitors do not because they are bigger. We have still got this huge personal contact with them, which people like because they do want to talk to you and they do want to query things. They cannot do that all the time online.

The fact that people drop by is why I’ve always done the office windows up through the years. The office in 9 Trinity Street is such a lovely showcase that we have always had seasonal windows.

Has there been an ‘Olympics effect’ on bookings?

Rebecca has been dealing exclusively with that, but I do know that most of the period is booked up. The Olympics is going to be certainly a success for visitors I would think.

So you’ve got to know many people in Southwold?

Oh yes, definitely. The population has changed tremendously. When I very first knew them, all the fairly well-heeled people were still actually residents in the town, with houses there. But of course eventually all those people have died off because they were all elderly then anyway. So I have seen some huge changes. Southwold has still managed to hold its charm. I think people will have to face changes there, but they are reluctant to do so. Woodbridge is a good example of a place that has managed to reinvent itself by stopping the town centre from being inundated with cars, and making use of all its little yards as coffee houses and interesting little places.

Have you enjoyed it all?

Yes I did enjoy all those years. I do miss it, terribly at first, but I still go in one day a week to give Rebecca a break. So I am still in touch with Southwold, which is nice.  The bank staff knows I’m there on a Wednesday, and people come and see me just to keep in touch with me when I’m in.

Southwold has always had a huge part of my heart because I was there every day. When I worked at Acanthus at first, I used to work seven days a week there. I had to to build it up. Sheer sweat and tears. So I was there so much of the time. My husband’s been an angel really – he’s put up with a lot like missing meals and things. He’s really been supportive.

Luckily all my children were grown up by then any way, and they are all doing their own thing. My oldest is Nick Meo, foreign correspondent for the Sunday Telegraph. You may see his name regularly in the newspapers. He lives quite an extraordinary life because he just follows the wars all round the world. At the moment he’s in the Lebanon covering events in Syria, trying to get over the border. He’s been shot at, bombed, everything through the years in all the hotspots. My middle child, Gregory, owns a landscaping business and lives locally. Rebecca, my youngest, has taken over the business.

So, you’ve now retired

I have. I live here at Shadingfield House and have done for 25 years. My project is my house. It is nearing its completion but the gardens will never stop needing work. My husband is Peter Tallon, a doctor of geology, who is quite well known, who retires in May 2012. There will be battle in the kitchen as we are both cooks!

My hobbies reflect my artistic side: I like cooking, and gardening is my great love. I also make various floristry decorations and have done for years. That sort of thing is where it comes out I guess: design, particularly interior design. I am tempted to start my own design consultancy, but I will see how things go. I have been pushed to do beekeeping by my daughter, who bought me a beehive as a retirement present, so I have that to think about.

The gardens are big and they need a lot of attention. I grow all my own flowers from seed. I am a member of the Royal Horticultural Society, so I have a lot to do with that. I’ve got loads of acanthus, but then I was bound to wasn’t I?! I have a whole huge bed of them.

I am also looking forward to going back to baking because baking seems to be coming back into fashion. My daughter also bought me a bread machine for Christmas. I think she’s trying to tell me something!