Welcome to another episode of our series, SLG Meetups, by Super Luxury Group, where we connect with some of the most interesting players in the luxury market. My name is Alvaro, and today we'll be having with us a very special guest. His name is Simon Rosse, and he's the founder and managing director at Mutea Warwining Midway Group. He's going to be talking about the vision behind the development firm with a portfolio of new build, restoration, and refurbishment projects.
This includes exceptional houses, hotels, apartments, and commercial spaces. Simon is also going to be talking about the excitement of giving the past a future by refining the concept of development in the UK while keeping positive and healthy habits. Great updates on the current trends in the area while sharing the most exciting projects and impact social media has brought to leverage and increase their customer base. I hope you enjoy it.
Simon, my friend, how are you? Alvaro, very well, how are you? I'm doing phenomenal, good to see you. Good to see you too.
Fantastic, excellent. Fantastic introduction, very kind, very kind. Of course, and you're back from an amazing trip back into the UK, back into reality. Unfortunately, yeah, no, it's all good.
I was over in Dubai for a while, and great trip, fantastic place, fantastic market as well, fantastic property. That's for sure. I mean, I've seen it all, and right now I've got to tell you that you're bringing lots of value from Dubai to the UK because you have a few tremendous projects going on. I wanted to ask you before we get into what you're currently working on and how you see the UK developing.
There's one tackling that you use, which I love it. It's like giving the past a future. I love it. I think that right now a lot of people are looking into the past and they don't know what to do next.
You are the type of person that grabs something that might not look so good and transform it into something beautiful. I wanted to just pull up something quickly here because you are Mr. Awards. I mean, your company has been winning all kinds of awards in the UK, and I find that tremendous.
So tell us a little bit about your story and how did that passion for transforming and building properties into what you're doing today happen? Wow. So I guess the story started 20 years ago. I was actually in the state of Asia here, just outside of Southwest London.
Always, always loved property, loved architecture. I always knew that I wanted to be a property developer. I guess I'm doing the job that I always wanted to do. And I started off as a state agent to get to know the ropes, to understand the property market, the legal side of things, transactions, etc.
And then started a couple of years later, very, very small as all property developers and construction companies generally do. Started buying very, very small properties, I guess, giving the past the future, the tagline that you just said. And I guess the trajectory to where we are today, where we've grown the company to, it's been an interesting right. No, it's a great trajectory.
And I love what you guys have been working on. And most recently, you have a beautiful property that you just finished for over four million pounds. So this one right here was trying to play a video, but I'm not sure if they would play, there we go. Oh, wow.
Oh, wow. It's working. You heard it. Look at it.
Yeah. Yeah. That's a very, very special one. It's a very special one.
Very special one. That's just outside of London, 30 minutes from Central London in a fantastic village. Cobham, most of your listeners may not have heard of it, but it's a commuter belt in Central London. It's a fantastic private estate, just around 7,000 square foot and internal area for those who talk on square feet.
And it's a new one for me. It's got a bit of a Mediterranean star. So that's a very pretty house, very pretty. No, that's fantastic home.
And that definitely shows up exactly the quality of work that you guys do. And I really like that you are so variety, you know, that you focus on transforming those forms into something else. Now, what's the purpose behind it? Well, my company is quite diverse.
So we started our roots were started as property developers, so buying land, building houses and apartments and selling them on the open market. And we still do a great deal about today across Central London, almost a pizza slice coming out to Central London at the graveyard, Knightsbridge, Chelsea, coming all the way down through to the Southwest. And the roots, as I said, were property development, but seven years ago, I decided on a Monday morning after having been approached by many, many private clients, businesses, architects, etc, asking if I would build for them. But that was a completely different business structure to the structure I had been working on for so long.
The property developer is very different to a construction company, Jim. So I started a construction company and it just went crazy. And from there, we have built many, many mansions. Correct.
No, that's great. I'm sorry, let me ask you, what has been one of the most interesting projects of your career, you will say? We've had some fantastic clients. I guess most recently building a school in Central London was a new one for me.
That was on the Kings Road for those who know where that is. That was an interesting project. And that was an obviously commercial building a hotel was a real experience as well. But each project is different.
You know, everything we do is unique. I feel you're now one. Now with this year, being a little bit different, let's say, right? What has been some of the hardest parts in your business?
During the strictest part of the lockdown, we struggled to get certain materials to building sites. We got up to 15 sites under construction at one time, spreading through, as I say, Central London all the way out. So getting materials was challenging. We had to stop one project because our staff were coming from across London, trying to get to another part of London and COVID was stopping travel.
So that was challenging. But you know, we've been really busy. There were just challenges with materials procurement, getting materials from abroad, because we buy a lot of materials from Europe, China. So that was fun.
But we got past it. We got past it. Well, yeah, I've seen that you actually were able to deliver those breaks. So very incredible.
Now, I got to tell you, you've been working with some of the most incredible homes on South hotels. And there's a question that I always ask you know, about luxury. And from a developer's standpoint, like, what really is luxury to you? Well, I think it was, as Tom Ford said, that luxury to him was, he considered luxury to be time and silence.
So I think I'd have to agree with Tom Ford because time is precious. Silence is equally as precious nowadays when you're this busy. Luxury means something different to everybody, whether that be, you know, being grateful to have a cup of coffee in the morning, great friends, great family, all the way through to, you know, working with clients whose ideas of luxury, luxury is different for everyone, isn't it? But for me, I think luxury at the moment is time and silence.
That means a lot. That's a good one. So we'll agree with Tom, I guess. It's a good one.
I think it's also a very valuable point, but you just said about perspective, you know, perspective is something that it's very important these days because it's how you look at things, what determines your future, right? So in your case, I mean, I've seen you all traveling and working, getting pretty excited, positive, and it's all about surrounding yourself with the right people. Now, what is it exactly? Because you always have a smile on your face, you're always positive.
What excites you in the morning when you wake up? Well, I love my work. I'm, you know, I feel very sorry for people who, you know, wake up every day and don't get to be in the office. My father always loved his work.
I'm a workaholic, perhaps it's my detriment sometimes. But I love my work. So that gets me up and gets me going. Look, we do whatever makes us happy and uses that excitement in the morning, but it's important to have that excitement in the morning.
If you don't have it, then you start doing it all. I'm especially doing the wrong thing. Yeah, during these times it's critical to find that excitement, that passion. And as you said, if you have, you know, your business that you're passionate about and you wake up in the morning, but I also find it very incredible, the latest projects that you've been having, building schools, I think that also is rewarding, you know, like when you see that those schools are going to be hosting all these kids that are going to be learning, like there's something inside that fills you, you know, so I bet that excitement that you have every morning, that's great.
Now, for those that are actually not in that space there, where they wake up so excited, what will be something that you will recommend? I'm a big reader. I read a lot. I follow a lot of very, very inspirational business leaders, motivational speakers on Instagram every day, read lots of books, individuals such as David Meltzer, Gary Vaynerchuk, Gary V, I think it's tag Jay Shetty.
Just some of those guys just keep you going and keep you motivated. What I love about all of those guys is that they talk about failures in life because it would be wrong to, you know, to state that all businesses, pure success, everybody's at failures. No, definitely. I think that these days we can have so much negativity in front of us, but also so much positivity.
So it's all about when you're looking at it. Yeah, exactly perspective. And I really like the individuals that you mentioned, I actually follow the three of that. I do.
Yeah. And one of them that you mentioned, Gary V, I really like one of the things that you mentioned about looking at your failures as an opportunity to overcome this difficulties and become better. So, of course, another thing that he touches a lot, which is social media exposure, communication, how have you been adapting in regards to that? Yeah, certainly.
I mean, Instagram has been phenomenal for our business. The amount of clients that have just approached us just over social media. We don't advertise the company. I think we took out one advert many years ago, I mean, look right in the magazine, but it didn't, it isn't something that we carried on doing.
Power of social media now for business. And I think it's maybe in the last 12 months for us. I've just seen it just go crazy. Right.
Everybody right now, it's in front of the phone. Of course. Of course. It's a great tool to have that exposure.
And I think if you're not utilizing social media, if you're not making the most of it, you're missing out, you get left behind. I think that it's very important to be able to build relationships out of this kind of technologies, which is something that a few years ago, nobody will really imagine it. Right now, this is the regular thing. We're having a conversation live here.
A lot of people can get the value of it. So, Simon, just any exciting price that you have coming up or anything that you would like to share? Well, we've got a lot going on. We've got a lot coming up.
We just launched eight fantastic apartments in southwest London. Very strong market here in the UK, small apartments in prime locations. I'm very excited about that. We launched another weekend.
We sold a couple of those, which was fantastic. Nice. We're just finishing two large mansions, which we'll be putting photos up on. I think we'll be putting up on Instagram shortly.
Yeah, we've got lots going on. 2021 is going to be incredibly busy. And I forgot to say that your enthusiasm as well is very, very encouraging. Watching you every day, watching your stories go live.
You're so a passionate guy who's always got a smile on his face as well. So, I do enjoy watching you. I forgot to say that. But 2021, that's set to be very, very exciting.
And it's a very, very interesting, luxurious project coming up. Beautiful. I can't wait to see you. Maybe jump all the way to Miami.
Let's go. Maybe soon. Well, Simon, stay warm. Anything else that you would like to share?
I mean, I will put all the comments and information about where can they reach you, but I think you said it right. Instagram is the way to go. Yeah. And you can find your website.
Yeah, website. Instagram's the best place to reach us. We get a lot of messages. We get through them.
So please, please do contact us if you see anything that inspires you, anything that you like. Please do let us know. But I really appreciate you taking the time to speak to me. I'm very grateful.
It's very kind of you. And I very much enjoyed it. Thank you very much. I'm on the pleasure of mine.
And obviously, I think that everybody that was tuning in found great value inspiration from hearing you today. I'm right. You know, wishing you always the best. I hope to see you soon.
If not in the UK, hear Miami or who know, maybe good life. Absolutely. Sounds good. Thanks, Alvaro.
I could speak with you. Take care. Bye now. Thanks again for everybody tuning in today.
We hope you enjoyed it. And remember, embrace it beautiful success in life. My name is Alvaro and I'll see you next time.