‘We’ll have 10% market share in two years’, says Purplebricks boss
Sam Mitchell makes claim during a frank interview talking his business with London newspaper including his reasons for buying the agency for £1.
The boss of the company that owns Purplebricks has made punchy predictions that the estate agency will have 10% of the sales market in two years’ time.
The comments have been made by Sam Mitchell, the boss originally of Strike, the agency that bought Purplebricks and then binned the Strike name.
During a video interview with London’s City AM newspaper, Mitchell also revealed that the combined businesses are now ‘not a million miles away’ from being profitable overall, saying instruction were up 60% year-on-year and would soon have national coverage following its deal with ITV. He also revealed that Purplebricks, which now offers its sales service ‘for free’, was running at approximately 500 to 600 instructions a week.
He also said that while the estate agency had 3% of the market he wanted to push this to 5% very soon and have 10% by in “18 months to two years’ time”, punchy hopes that the original leadership team often claimed too.
Purplebricks deal
Mitchell also revealed why he decided to buy Purplebricks, saying he had originally planned to raise £50-£100m from investors to take Strike to the next level, but instead buying an already household name like Purplebricks was a more cost-effective way to give the business more momentum.
Mitchell, who joined Strike in 2018 after a stellar career at Rightmove and before that working in estate agency including at Your Move and Foxtons, told City AM’s UK editor that running Strike and subsequently Purplebricks had to date been the “biggest challenge of my career”
10% market share in two years? I wouldn’t bet your house on it!