Verona Frankish has left her position as managing director of lettings at Purplebricks after two years, while Christian Howes, head of sales, became the latest high-profile departure yesterday afternoon, following more than seven years with the firm.
Frankish joined Purplebricks in March 2019 from the Mortgage Advice Bureau as national mortgage director. She went on to head up the conveyancing and lettings business two months later following the departure of co-founders, brothers Michael and Kenny Bruce, as well as Richard Jacques.
Frankish worked closely with Purplebriks CEO Vic Darvey, but he announced via email on Sunday night that she had left the company with immediate effect.
An ex-Purplebricks agent told EYE yesterday: “Vic Darvey announced Verona’s Frankish departure with immediate effect last [Sunday] night at 10:30pm and mandated all lettings personnel to be on a 9am teams call today [Monday]. No reason given why she has gone but another one used and abused then booted out the door.”
Darvey also announced yesterday that Christian Howes, head of sales, has left the company.
A Purplebricks spokesperson told EYE yesterday that Howes’ position was only temporary, and that the sales department will now be headed up by ex-Foxtons director Chris Beckwith, who was appointed to the newly-created role of chief sales officer earlier this month.
There was initially some confusion within the firm over who would replace Frankish yesterday, given her sudden departure, but the spokesperson was later able to announce that Helen Ogden would be taking on her duties.
The spokesperson insisted that both Frankish and Howes were not sacked and opted to leave the company, adding that the timing was simply coincidental.
The Purplebricks spokesperson issued the following statement: “After several years with Purplebricks, Christian Howes and Verona Frankish have decided that now is the right time to move on and explore new opportunities outside of the business. They have both made a significant contributions during their time at here and we’d like to thank them both for their support and dedication.
“As announced last week, Chris Beckwith has recently taken over as our new chief sales officer and lettings will be led by our new head of lettings, Helen Ogden, who joined the business at the end of last year.”
Comments (23)
Interesting comments but does anyone really give a “you know what” people leave jobs all the time and with a “you know what show” called PB it’s just one comedy after another, although I read the parties used to be good !
Good to see a purplebricks article can still bring in the clicks and comments. Next week, all week, it will be Boomin – prepare yourselves.
Strike will take the opportunity to “bury the bad news” by publishing their results 😉
need an all rounder national operator to help sort it. Its not about London really the volume is elsewhere -and you need to know the wider markets. IMO
Why would you put an FS person in to run lettings?
Regardless of the subjectivity regarding a person’s ability in their role or stated opinions about them; the larger point is being missed! The model is broken beyond repair and the brand is not worth it. Good and less good people come and go all of the time and will continue to do so because what needs to be fixed can’t or won’t be.
· The churn of employed and contractor staff is prolific.
· PB – 7 years since it started dealing with customers and has yet to pay a dividend to its’ shareholders.
· LPEs/LPCs effectively work for an hourly rate that is less than the minimum wage.
· The ripple effect of the Uber case.
· The lettings model doesn’t work – it’s too expensive.
· The sales model has limited appeal; it is not in customers’ best interests.
· Their technology is obsolete and can’t be iterated. Whilst the company has no debt and decent reserves of cash; there is very little investor appetite for the investment needed to be the tech enabled business that is being claimed.
· The PB brand has massive consumer recognition granted but for what? Being a cheap, online estate agent – whose integrity has not always been clear. Watchdog anyone?
The model is broken and it’s perhaps, too difficult to fix. There will be many more postings like this at the ever-revolving door of PB Towers.
EN You are probably right ,however they haven’t even bothered to try and fix it before I guess they have been overly preoccupied with the veneer.
VF who was handed Lettings comes from a mortgage background so may be unsurprising that she has struggled without hands on experience .
Olliffee arrived from Quirks’ Emoov having only joined just before it folded and Quirky didnt give him a glowing reference .
Their recruitments have been questionable but it does look like the fresh fish arriving look cut from a different cloth .
Time will of course tell
Not sure this list of comments puts us all in the best light.
I didn’t know these two people but always two sides to the story when senior people leave – sometimes its poor performance, sometimes its greed, sometimes they don’t believe in the CEO, or health, change of role etc, etc.
Well if you managed to read the ” realpropertyexperts” damming view of them all before it got removed (It’s there in smilepleaseTweets) you can see why Beckwith has arrived with the sword swinging .
The new Head Honcho Helen Ogden from Haus at least arrives with a bit of form.
The facts speak for themselves Nov 2019 350 lettings inventory which was miserable enough today 249 ,its been a downward spiral and a loss leader Something has to give
A couple of years ago I went to view a property that PB had for sale. I asked the LPE about their lettings business as i had not seen a PB to let board locally. He said he wouldn’t bother using the local PB Lettings as the person managing the let properties lived too far away to respond quickly for viewings etc.
I still haven’t seen a PB To Let board in my area in the East Midlands.
LOL, those who think Christian is a nice guy and had everyones backs are crazy, he would throw you under a bus at the first chance.
Dont even think the great Sporting Ken would have him now.
Talking of Sporting Ken His 4 times winner on the bounce impressive stuff , his star player the aptly named Pink Sheets has unfortunately sustained a career injury and has been put out to stud .
A Bit like our Ken leaving Bricks limping along after winning handsomely himself and now be Tomming it with Boomin’ Let;s see what that will produce
Christian was the last good man in there, a true leader who’s people had his back (and vice versa).
The culture within this business is the reason it will not succeed, it’s a toxic merry go round, and those who ride it for too long will be ill prepared for when their flung from it or open their eyes to its glum future.
Vic knows their payment model isn’t working but they wouldn’t dare change it as they’d have a mass exodus.
It’s currently looking like a precarious game of Jenga
How many days until we get the PIE headline ‘ Verona Frankish and Christian Howes join Boomin’?
Probably Vic Darvey read my recent comment on PIE that Connells had 90,000 let and managed properties and the Franchise Group had 70,000 let and managed properties, and if Purplebricks only had 400 or less rentals listed after several years of ‘doing’ rentals with a large rental team – then it was time to ask why? I think I posted that three days ago. Big question is who else is for the chop? And as we tick into April how much profit will they make – will it be the first profits ever for the company … let us see. Perhapsthe bigger question is if you run your strategy from the comments page of PIE – is that a sustainable business model, especially if Hillofwad gets posting.
HAHAHAHAHA
You inflated opinion of your self is staggering.
I would imagine he looked at the stats internally. I doubt he even looks on here. He will be far to busy. You are not the centre of everyone else’s universe.
Every new boss makes changes it is hardly surprising.
Strange, I don’t remember seeing you mentioned in this article, not sure how you intrepreted it as being about you…………….
Should imagine it’s quite difficult to steer a riderless ship.
Or even a rudderless horse.
Abandon ship
Happens every 24 months, you would of thought the board at PB would see how poor the leadership is at this company, what do they talk about every 6 months? we are not growing because we need to sack these 7 people.
My understanding is, that the new CPO at PB will be the next Alison Platt at PB.
Both extremely lucky to hold the roles they had for the amount of time they did.
Tales from the “realpropertyexpert “at the shenanigans has clearly hit home and positive action undertaken by the BODS .Fair play to them.
It does seem that the new arrivals Beckwith & Carter are already making their mark .
Lettings have limped along from the getgo under too many chiefs and inventory has fallen by 20% +in the last 2 years with a paltry inventory of just under 250 today.
The purple elephant in the room .
Interesting times ahead at Bricks with management of change
Is there a chance that professional Landlords are cannier than occasional buyers and sellers and they want an actual boots on the ground property manager who is local enough to actually keep an eye on their portfolio, thus making the sum total of what PB can do to change their Lettings’ proposition nil?