Pictured: Ian Houghton and Chris Vincent, co-directors of Hovi Developments 

A record year of lettings means leading Black Country property and asset management company Hovi Developments is on the acquisition trail for new sites across the West Midlands.

Bucking the current climate, Hovi has secured a 98% occupancy rate thanks to a raft of 20 new lettings over the last 12 months across the firm's seven estates in the Midlands.

Impressively, this means that Hovi is searching for additional sites to add to its near one million sq ft property portfolio.  

Now, completely full is Hovi's Hainge Road Trading Estate in Tividale and Strawberry Lane Industrial Estate in Wolverhampton. 

Recent major lettings include Schmolz + Bickenbach UK Ltd, part of the global network of Schmolz + Bickenbach Group. The German owned steel and stainless steel stockholder has taken a 60,000 sq ft multi-bay warehouse at 33 Hainge Road.   

Hovi has also let a 5,000 sq ft unit to NSL Care Services Ltd at 23 Strawberry Lane.

The firm's 400,000 sq ft Rushock Trading Estate near Droitwich is also nearly 100 per cent full with only two individual yards, each of approximately 2 acres available on a flexible leasehold basis.   

Following the success of Rushock, Hovi's Waterside Industrial Estate in Rowley Regis is also near full occupancy with only a single 3,081 sq ft unit available on a freehold or leasehold basis.   

Hovi's director Chris Vincent says flexibility is the key to the firm's success. 

He said: "Without doubt, 2011 has been a fantastic year for us - our best to date - and we are optimistic for continued growth in 2012. 

"Although the climate remains challenging, we've listened to our tenants' requirements and adopted a flexible approach which has seen us achieve record occupancy levels.

"A major selling point for us is the fact we work closely with businesses and sit down with prospective tenants to look at their plans in order to tailor our product to suit their individual requirements. We listen to tenants and understand that each business has specific needs which with a bit of fine tuning we can normally accommodate.

Co-owner and director Ian Houghton said: "As a progressive, acquisitive company, we're now looking to expand our portfolio of industrial sites for refurbishment across the Black Country and south Midlands, where we can add our active management approach."

"We are also in the process of entering into a number of joint ventures where we can leverage our asset management expertise. This will lead to us creating a number of new jobs in 2012 and potentially doubling the amount of floor space that we have under our control.

Established nine years ago, Hovi specialises in injecting value into tired and dilapidated industrial sites through refurbishment and active management programmes.

The firm owns and manages extensively refurbished commercial sites in Oldbury, Tividale, Wolverhampton, Rowley Regis, Brierley Hill and Droitwich.