There is speculation that a number of head office staff at Purplebricks may be facing redundancy.
A spokesperson would not comment directly and would not confirm the numbers involved but told EYE at the weekend that some roles will disappear.
They said: “As we continue to move to more digital solutions, some existing roles are unfortunately no longer required, however we are also creating new positions in our field and digital teams.”
The news comes in the week that Ed Hughes, Chief Marketing Officer at Purplebricks, quit his job.
On this the spokeperson told EYE:
“Ed Hughes has decided that, after over three years with Purplebricks, now this is the right time for him to explore new opportunities.
“A new CMO will be appointed in due course.”
Hughes will have been responsible for the sponsorship of Team GB, about which he said last January:
“Purplebricks is famous for its honest take on the world of estate agency with an added twist of humour. And we saw no reason to stop when it came to our sponsorship of Team GB. This is our biggest campaign so far and underlines the passion and commitment of our people to being the leading property experts in all corners of the nation – even if that advice can’t quite take you to the podium in Tokyo.”
Before his stint at Purplebricks Hughes was at comparethemarket.com, Nike, Umbro, and was a consultant PR at Bell Pottinger, handling major clients such as The FA, Carlsberg, Hyundai, Bennetts Insurance & Tetley’s.
It is not yet known what other opportunities Hughes is exploring.
Comments (6)
“…a number of… some roles…”
Words… no numbers, though. Funny, that – Bricks LOVE Numbers. Especially big ones. Eighty eight was a favourite for a while. Then seventy eight… currently seventy seven. All big numbers.
I have heard that it’s BIG NUMBERS that have been told their jobs have gone – numbers that hollow words like “some” doesn’t even start to account for. Wonder why Bricks are keeping THOSE numbers to themselves?
Some might say that perhaps they don’t like big numbers when they are genuine?
Surely they’ll all be going to ‘Launch B’?
New positions? That’s a lie as we were all shown the door and not offered a chance to be retrained into new roles
Never mind Bruce has his new agents mentoring “well being” for agents flagship coming soon.
The people made redundant aren’t agents are they. It’s HQ staff, people that kept the business moving and progressing not out in the field.
What is clear is that there are too many chiefs on the rentals side. It looks like this is no longer an Olympics event ,No longer recruiting and instructions have withered to a current miserly 283 instructions.
Certainly doesn’t justify the hefty cost of the number of divisional Lettings Directors.
Heavily criticised on social media
To give this some perspective Foxtons Canary Wharf office have over 300 lettings instructions alone As a group more lettings instructions than sales Another Bricks failure can they use some of that £66m in the pot to buy some expertise in or just bin it ?
Last week was a good week for Bricks on the sales instruction side with Scotalnd & Wales opening up from lockdown and almost back up to July 2019 levels