First reported in The Times, the firm has allegedly been in talks with staff in various departments about possible redundancies for several weeks. It is understood that there are around 800 employees at the firm.
The Times said the consultation will end on Friday and added that it understood around 100 employees would be made redundant. This was a mix of both voluntary and compulsory redundancies.
The report continued that Purplebricks has been struggling over the past year or so, with its share price more than halving over the course of this year.
Yesterday in a general meeting, shareholder Lecram Holdings proposed removing Paul Pindar as chairman and appointed Harry Hill to the board of directors. This was rejected by the company’s shareholders.
Helena Marston, Purplebricks CEO, said: “I want to reassure all shareholders that we understand their concerns. Our past performance has not been good enough. But we have a new team, with an agreed plan that is being delivered at pace.
“The operational changes implemented over the last four months will be clear for all to see at our final results, in terms of a substantially improved cash and profit performance. We take nothing for granted and we are fully committed to driving improved performance, higher standards and value for all stakeholders.”
She added: “The housing market will be what it will be in 2023 but we have a value driven customer proposition, right sized our cost base by £17m, and laid the foundations for a more balanced business with the recent launch of new revenue streams and a plan to grow our lettings business.
“There is a big opportunity for Purplebricks and we want the opportunity to deliver it.”
In its half-year results, Purplebricks reported revenue of £16m, which was down 16 per cent on the same period last year and gross profit of £26.2m, which is 38 per cent lower than last year.
The firm said that it expected to see “positive cash generation” in early 2024.
Earlier in the month, Purplebricks added that it would launch a mortgage advisory business, Purplebricks Financial Services.
The company said that the “mortgage business would allow it to “control the end-to-end customer journey and receive a threefold increase in revenue per mortgage”.
