Purplebricks is set to cut 10% of its staff by the end of this week, with the move impacting roles across the business.
EYE revealed in October that staff members at Purplebricks face potential redundancies, after we were informed that the business had entered a consultation process with employees, but it was not clear when those jobs would be cut.
According to The Times, the struggling online estate agency is currently in the process of laying off more than 100 of its staff of about 800 as part of its latest strategy to make the firm profitable, with the redundancy programme set to conclude tomorrow.
However, a Purplebricks spokesperson tells EYE that “it is actually less than 90 [members of staff] and the vast majority [of redundancies] are voluntary”.
Purplebricks has undergone multiple major management changes this year, including the appointment of Dominique Highfield as its new chief financial officer (CFO) in October. The previous CFO, Steve Long, departed after just nine months in the role.
The CFO change came at a turbulent time for the agency, when one of its shareholders, Lecram Holdings, called for the removal of chairman Paul Pindar, hours after the company in August reported its first annual loss since the pre-pandemic 2019 fiscal year.
Lecram, the investment vehicle of Adam Smith, lost its battle on Monday to reshuffle the board.
Some 71% of shareholders voted to keep Paul Pindar in place as chairman, but 29% voted for his removal. Nearly 42% of shareholders voted to appoint Harry Hill as a director, however 58% voted against this.
Purplebricks’ share price has fallen 90% in the last 18 months, which was already a long way from the highs of 2018 when the group was valued at more than £1bn. Its market value is now just £35m.
Purplebricks investor tells firm to draw ‘appropriate conclusion’ after failure to oust chairman
Whilst I understand PIE’s hatred towards Purplebricks, I don’t see what the big newsworthy deal is here. Yes, it’s sad whenever any Company has to make redundancies and I feel for those who are about to lose their jobs, especially at this time of year but PB have been reactive to what is now happening in the property world. Many other Estate Agents, big, medium and small are bound to follow suit in the New Year and will need to cut back in order to survive in what we are expecting to be a very flat 2023 (at best) property market. If Joe Bloggs Estates with say 30 employees across 3/4 offices had to make 4/5 members of staff redundant then they would be losing far more than 10% of their workforce. I am certainly no fan of PB but the reality is that they are doing now what other firms will no doubt be doing next year (they may even thinking or wanting to do it now with dwindling pipelines).
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As an industry editorial …. it is newsworthy. I’d like to see you be an employer that has to tell staff they have no job, let alone at Christmas time. We shall see if your claims that all the industry will follow in 2023, if so and I do not agree, they didn’t do it at Christmas!
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Couldn’t have chosen a better time ……… I think not. So insensitive as PB have known for some time what path they are taking. This isn’t a rash, immediate decision is it. You run a business on accountancy with forecast, budgeting and planning with likely risks ahead and is something PB from day one never got right, as history has proven.
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Not to stick up for PB but most companies announce redundancies around this time of year so they can clear the books for the end of the financial year in 2023. Seen it across multiple industries this week
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For all those curious as to why we appear fixated with this shower, it’s human nature in all languages eg:
1.Schadenfreude
2. Revenge is a dish best served cold.
3. What goes around comes around.
4. Karma is a bitttch.
5. Live by the sword, die by the sword.
6. Pride comes before a fall.
etc etc etc
The Hubris was strong in this one.
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