Purplebricks CEO Sam Mitchell to depart as online estate agency announces ‘new structure’

Sam Mitchell

Purplebricks CEO Sam Mitchell will be leaving his role, the online estate agency has confirmed.

According to a statement from Purplebricks, Mitchell will depart the company after seven years, having initially worked as head of Strike, before transitioning to Purplebricks following the takeover of the troubled brand last year for just £1.

Mitchell’s departure from the company was caused by Purplebricks’ decision to restructure its operation. The group will now operate with distinct businesses in sales, mortgages and lettings, with a fourth division to be announced in the coming months.

Mitchell, who previously worked for Foxtons, joined Strike in 2017. He will now work his notice period, and has not, as wrongly claimed in other areas of the trade press, been ‘booted out’ by Purplebricks.

The online estate agency issued this statement: “Purplebricks has reorganised for the next stage of its journey. The group will now operate with distinct businesses in Sales, Mortgages and Lettings, with a fourth division to be announced in the coming months. These businesses will continue to be run by their respective MDs, who will report into Andrew Harrison as executive chairman.

“As part of this reorganisation Sam Mitchell, CEO, will leave the business after a transition period. Andrew, the former CEO of Carphone Warehouse, and Sam have worked together to disrupt the estate agency industry since [2017], first at Strike and then at Purplebricks following the merger of the two brands in 2023. Sam will continue to work closely with Andrew over the coming months as Purplebricks’ new structure takes shape.

“Trading remains in line with our expectations, we recently were awarded Best Online Estate Agency at the ESTAS Customer Service Awards 2024 and are the largest UK estate agency in terms of number of listings.”

 

x

Email the story to a friend!



7 Comments

  1. hertsagent13

    Disrupting estate agency since 2017, no one can actually believe this garbage!

    Report
  2. skipdale

    Disrupt! Only things these outfits disrupt is their employees lives. Only a few weeks ago Mr Mitchell got some stick from me and others regarding his comments that he still believes that PB can get 10% overall market share.

    Report
    1. Robert_May

      With a new boss they might, unlikely, but they might. That is not a reflection of Mr. Mitchel but that Sir Charles needs to something different. Passive intermediaries saying they are full service estate agents doesn’t work. He needs either to be the very best passive intermediary portal listing firm ( his only real option) or he needs to do what Michael, Kenny and Harry are doing now (that’s a saturated space so its best avoided)
      There is a 5% market share for passive intermediaries, if Sir Charles focuses on doing that well he could make a good living once he stops giving a valuable service away for nowt!

      Report
  3. Isa B Agent

    I can think of a few highly successful CEOs in the property space, and Sam is not one of them.

    Huge losses, no profits, no track record.

    The question is, how did he manage to last as long as he did, when he didn’t have a track record before taking the role in the first place?

    Investors must have cash to throw away, as this is exactly what they have done.

    Report
  4. Gangsta Agent

    I bet he’s going to feel really silly about all his comments over the last few years when his next job is normal agency with normal fees

    Report
    1. jan-byers

      I very much doubt he will give a t–s

      Report
  5. BillyRay

    Did he not say on here recently that the housing renting sector is a ‘broken business model’ ?? My goodness me, I’m not surprised he’s been shown the door, many household budgets are extremely stretched nowadays and for many years to come and buying property is now out of reach for many and renting is the only alternative. If he had his finger on the pulse he would have seen that as well as that consolidation in the sector is now focused on businesses with a quality rental stock of properties.

    Report
X

You must be logged in to report this comment!

Comments are closed.

Thank you for signing up to our newsletter, we have sent you an email asking you to confirm your subscription. Additionally if you would like to create a free EYE account which allows you to comment on news stories and manage your email subscriptions please enter a password below.