Team Update

July 2026

Dear team,

A busy month across our villages and residences, and indeed a warm one! As we mark the longest day of the year, we also celebrate the start of summer as we look forward to the ever-growing schedule of events and activities across our portfolio.

In this first team newsletter, we are delighted to announce the launch of our new corporate brand, AEM Living, and share updates on key projects such as the new CRM system and Cubigo app for homeowners.

Everything in this newsletter is for your information. No action needed. So please grab a drink, make yourself comfortable, and read a little about what's happening across the business.

Introducing AEM Living

AEM is official! AEM Living has been announced to owners and to the wider market. As the new corporate entity, AEM houses our three exceptional brands:

Audley Villages retirement community lounge

Audley Villages

Explore the brand
Elysian Residences, Wildernesse House

Elysian Residences

Explore the brand
Mayfield Villages, Watford

Mayfield Villages

Explore the brand
The AEM Living website shown on a mobile phone, displaying The AEM Living portfolio gallery

Audley Group still exists as a legal entity but we will no longer use Audley Group branding for internal or external communications.

The Audleygroup.com website will remain published for a period of time to maintain customer continuity whilst we gradually migrate links and corporate traffic to the new AEM Living website.

Here's a first look at the new website - live now at www.aemliving.com

Visit the AEM Living Website
How You'll Use AEM Living

It is important to note that our corporate entity is not intended to be used widely in marketing, serving mainly to provide a corporate brand structure. What will remain dominant is the 3 independent village brands.

Please support this process by forwarding any document that needs a brand treatment to marketing.requests@audleygroup.com, and we will quickly return it, applied and saved down as necessary.

C

In the coming days there will be AEM Living Canva templates and a PowerPoint template available for the central team to use.

Brand guidelines & imagery

You will continue to find links to the Audley and Mayfield brand guidelines and acceptable imagery on the SharePoint homepage, and Elysian Residences branding via the marketing team and Sharepoint link below.

Audley Villages Branding Mayfield Villages Branding Elysian Residences Branding

Emails, servers & LinkedIn

While we continue to migrate the Elysian and Audley servers, you will notice your email signature and email address will soon automatically update. Those in villages will continue to work from their village brand email and signature. For those in central teams, your email address will soon update, along with a signature reflecting your current title and the new AEM Living branding. Please be assured that your current email address will continue to work.

LinkedIn If you'd like to share the AEM Living announcement, please don't publish your own - wait for the official update by Gavin and the individual brands, and reshare one of those posts to keep our messaging consistent.

If you follow Audley Group as your employer on LinkedIn (rather than Audley Villages or Mayfield Villages), please don't change anything yet - the company name will change to AEM Living on LinkedIn once the new email addresses and signatures are in place.

AI Usage

As we may well expect, the prominence of AI-generated images, flyers, documents and graphics is increasingly being seen across the business, in both central and village teams. While the benefits of AI are clear, please be aware of the following brand controls:

  1. 1Avoid using AI to generate customer emails and communications. Whilst it's useful in drafting, make sure your communications reflect your tone of voice and your village brand's tone of voice, so they stay as genuine as possible.
  2. 2Never upload customer information to AI in any way, including within spreadsheets, as this may be a serious breach of data privacy.
  3. 3Don't use AI to format documents - the outcome is a wide range of AI-generated brand formats that erode the continuity and power of our own brand. Instead, insert text into templates available, or ensure your AI feed is running the brand guidelines.
  4. 4While we appreciate it can be great fun, please don't use AI to generate flyers, posters, signs, or to edit or create photos and images. Continue to follow the village marketing processes - Canva, for example - with support from the marketing team.

If you're up to date with your IT training, you'll have seen guidance and concern around AI adoption. If ever in doubt, reach out to any member of the marketing team - we're always happy to help.

IT AI Acceptable Use Policy
Our New CRM

Thank you to everyone who took the time to submit a name for our new CRM. We had some brilliant suggestions, and it was great to see so much creativity and thought behind them!

We're delighted to share that the chosen name is:

Compass by AEM Go-live: 3 August 2026

A special thank you to Tina, Shan and Simone, whose ideas inspired the name. Together, they described Compass as a platform that guides every homeowner through their journey - from first enquiry to becoming part of a lifelong community - a name that feels warm, modern and relevant without sounding too corporate. That really captures what we're building.

As we move towards go-live, Compass by AEM will become the platform that brings our homeowner journey together, helping us work more closely across AEM Living and deliver an even better experience for our customers. We're looking forward to sharing more with you over the coming weeks.

Ian Gibbs Director of Commercial Operations
Cubigo Village Management Platform - Launch Update

We're launching Cubigo, our new village management platform, in two phases.

Phase 1 - launching in July at the first 5 villages

Registration and access to key village information: news feeds, activity bookings, table reservations, and community engagement content.

We'll be running group drop-in sessions to help owners onboard and get familiar with the key features. Teams are currently completing training and populating Cubigo content ahead of launch. Drop-in session dates will follow shortly, and marketing photos and text will be visible next week.

Phase 2 - later this year

Billing functionality, giving owners real-time access to monthly invoices with full supporting detail.

Please encourage owners to engage with the platform once live - we'll support the rollout and help demonstrate how Cubigo makes village life more connected and convenient.

Rob Diaper Business Development Director
Capex Update - Audley Villages

To update you on progress with capital investment across Audley villages: you may have noticed the start of works already in and around most villages, with further works planned. These investments are an important part of protecting both the experience and the value of homes over time.

We're also focused on strengthening alignment with owners - building trust and improving communication as we take this work forward together. Further updates on maintenance and improvements to follow.

Susan McClean Operations Director
Stay and Dine Across the AEM Living Portfolio

Last month, we announced to owners the partnership in F&B and alignment in discounts available across all sites.

50%
off in the restaurants and bistros when dining at all Audley, Elysian and Mayfield sites.

With the announcement of new summer menus, and the growing F&B offers available across the three brands, we hope you'll enjoy spending time at AEM sites across the country, with the latest opening - Botane at The Oakleigh, St Albans - coming in September.

To book a table, please contact the reception team or book online via The Fork or the Audleyrestaurants.co.uk website. Remember to give your name to claim your discount.

ARCO and the Integrated Retirement Community Sector

The annual ARCO Conference was held in London on 1st and 2nd July.

ARCO is the governing body for Integrated Retirement Communities (IRCs) in the UK. ARCO promotes confidence in the sector by ensuring that all Integrated Retirement Communities provide a high-quality service to homeowners.

ARCO lobbies government and the wider community to raise awareness of the Integrated Retirement Community model and invests in research to better understand the value of the sector - a mission we firmly support.

Everyone was delighted to welcome our very own Nick Sanderson and the Mayfield Belles to the stage (Nick wasn't cheerleading!). Many in attendance commented that this was the highlight of the conference - both the live panel between Nick and the Belles, as Watford owners, and the live performance at the end of day one.

We continue to support the work ARCO does to improve awareness and understanding of this widely misunderstood sector.

What Makes Us an IRC?
Upcoming Summer Fairs

It's fantastic to support each other and visit Summer Fairs over the weekends they're running.

VillageDayDateTime
Wycliffe ParkSaturday11th July11:30-16:00
St George's PlaceWednesday15th July12:00-15:00
RedwoodSaturday18th July11:00-15:00
ClevedonSaturday25th July11:00-15:00
Chalfont DeneSaturday25th July12:00-16:00
BinswoodThursday30th July11:00-14:00
Nightingale PlaceFriday31st July11:00-15:00
Mote HouseSaturday8th August11:00-15:00
EllerslieSaturday8th August11:00-14:00
Stanbridge EarlsSaturday8th August11:00-14:00
St Elphin's ParkSaturday8th August11:00-15:00
Cooper's HillSaturday8th August11:00-15:00
Sunningdale ParkSaturday29th August11:00-15:00
Mayfield WatfordSaturday29th August12:00-16:00
FairmileSaturday29th August-
See Summer Fair Dates
People and Culture
Angela Portero, Head of People and Culture

Angela Portero

Head of People and Culture

Since joining just over a month ago, I've had the opportunity to visit many of our villages. One thing that has really stood out is the incredibly warm welcome, not only the one I received, but the one you give our owners every single day. They have all spoken so fondly of you, which is a real testament to the care and dedication you have shown during this period.

It's an exciting time as our People Team is working to bring together the best of our three brands. Together, we're building a renewed culture that will enrich our own experience and help us become the best place to work in the luxury retirement living sector.

Thank you for everything you do to bring that vision to life.