Breaking: Purplebricks withdraws from US as group losses double
Final results for its latest financial year reveal increasing revenue but mounting losses and 'orderly' exit from the US market.
Purplebricks has revealed that it is to withdraw from the US market and that the groups’ losses have doubled this year to £52.3 million.
The two shock announcements are included in its results for the year ended April 2019 and despite the mounting group losses, it has also revealed group revenues up by 55% to £136.5 million and UK revenue up by 21% to £90.1 million.
Purplebricks is also getting better at up-selling services to its sales customers; ancillary revenue for its UK operation made up 44% of its turnover.
It’s operating profit in the UK has also improved, increasing to £5.3 million, and its share of the hybrid/online market has also increased from 73% to 76%.
But it is the group losses that are most likely to worry City investors, which have increased from £27.8 million last year to £52.3 million this year.
“We have taken the difficult decisions to exit our businesses in both Australia and the US as it is very important that we now focus our resources on the UK and Canada, where we have a strong established presence and where there are significant opportunities to grow market share and deliver profitable growth for shareholders,” says its CEO Vic Darvey (left).
“Both exits will be conducted in an orderly manner with the expectation they will be completed by the end of 2019.”
Darvey has also restated the company’s aim to capture 10% of the UK property sales sector despite recent figures revealing that Purplebricks and its online rivals hold less than 4% of the market.
Industry reaction
“Purplebricks has put more gloss on their UK performance than a drunk decorator and no wonder, considering the monumental failures elsewhere around the world,” says Colby Short (right) of GetAgent.co.uk.
“Now that they’ve returned from their international crusades with their tails between their legs, they will no doubt lining the City up for further investment to support their focus on the UK,”
“However, whilst they’ve grown revenue and claim they are ‘successful’ at selling, you just need to read between the lines to see that this success isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
“Although they are very vocal about their figures up until the sold subject to contract stage, their performance when actually getting a sale over the line remains shrouded in mystery.”
It was always destined to fail…you cannot replace experienced agents with muppets !
Was it Purple Bricks ever going to be a success ? honestly ? with their childish, bitter “commissary” ads and their upselling at every cheap opportunity? Do the techies and marketing gurus behind these experiments really believe this stuff ? and even worse, that they can take over the market from physical agency….how pretentious are they ? If they and the city seriously do think it’s possible, they are deluded. You will never ever be able to replace the relationship that is created between established agent and client. The city needs to get a life and invest in proper agency firms rather than this shambolic embarrassment…