Purplex, 2004 to today
Our story
How a restart in 2004 became a full-service agency for construction, building products and home improvement.
2004 · The start
Twenty years ago, having just lost my business… I figured out what I was good at, and I launched a new business.
Purplex: Purpose, Plan, Execute
He called it Purplex, after the way he works. Purpose: be clear about the outcome you’re after. Plan: work out how you’ll get there. Execute: see it through, properly.
Twenty-two years on, every client strategy we write still starts the same way.
2004–07
250,000 miles on the clock
I spent the next few years driving around the UK, visiting potential customers, in an old BMW with 250,000 miles on the clock.
Andrew knew building products. In the late 1990s he’d turned round a struggling manufacturer, grown it from £1 million to £12 million in four years and sold it to Masco. Now he put the same skills to work for companies in glazing and building products.
The first big order was a mailing of 10,000, all sent the same day. Andrew’s son Sean, then 14, helped get it out. He’s Growth Director today.
I came down after college, rode my bike down, stuffed envelopes when we were really, really small.
SeanGrowth Director
2006–15
Becoming an agency
Clients kept asking for more, so Purplex kept adding it, one discipline at a time. Most of the people who lead the agency today arrived in these years.
2006–07
A sister company, and a first office
In September 2006 Andrew started Insight Data to research the industry and supply its data. Within a year Purplex had its first office and its first employee.
2008–14
One discipline at a time
- 2008Design, Direct mail
- 2009PR
- 2010Email, Web design
- 2011SEO
- 2014Social media
Since 2008
Joined in those years, and still here
Helen ScottGroup Commercial DirectorJoined 2008
Sam CrossCommercial DirectorJoined 2009
Vicky FrancisClient Services DirectorJoined 2013
Adi DayDigital DirectorJoined 2013
2013
600 requests for 300 seats
Andrew launched Business Leader in 2012, and Purplex was asked to launch its awards. The first night, at Cadbury House on 26 September 2013 and hosted by Sir Ranulph Fiennes, sold out two months early.
2015
Cameras in-house, and a London address
In February Andrew Sykes and Jo Greenberry launched our video team. In May we became a Google Partner, and the same year we opened an office at Trafalgar Square.
2016–17
A building of our own
In September 2016 the Ascot Group bought a headquarters of almost 5,000 sq ft on Worle Park Way. Unit 200 opened in early 2017 in front of more than 100 guests, MPs among them. The same year the Institute of Directors named Andrew its Corporate Responsibility Director of the Year.
2018
400industry leaders in one room
The glazing industry, together
On 22 May 2018 Purplex and Insight Data brought 400 industry leaders to Birmingham for the first Glazing Summit: nine sessions on products, technology and business strategy, and a dinner.
Our own work was being noticed too. We were a finalist for Agency of the Year at the Construction Marketing Awards three times, and won Best Construction Marketing Agency at the SME News UK Enterprise Awards in 2019.
2020–22
Three buildings on one road
Covid stopped the events and changed how our clients sold. We helped them keep talking to their customers, and built digital products quickly. The group kept investing anyway.
I believe in what we are doing.
- Ascot OneBought 2016, opened 2017Unit 200, our headquarters
- Ascot TwoTaken on January 2020A few doors down
- Ascot ThreeBought November 2020The largest of the three
The group took a second building on Worle Park Way in January 2020 and bought a third, the largest, that November. More than 120 guests came to open the campus on 31 March 2022.
2023–24
Twenty years, and the next generation
Vicky Francis became Client Services Director ten years after joining, and our first apprentices started with Weston College. In September 2023 Andrew sold Business Leader and the Glazing Summit to concentrate on growing Purplex. An AI team started the same year.
April 2024
The Grand Pier, in 1920s dress
We marked twenty years by taking over the Grand Pier, with a jazz band called Trip For Biscuits. The motto for the year: Every Day Better.
2025–26
Every day better
- 2025
Sam Cross became Commercial Director, sixteen years after he joined.
- August 2026
Every team brought its ideas about AI, automation and client delivery to our first Future of Marketing Employee Summit.
- September 2026
We joined the Construction Products Association.
Twenty years later, I still have that old BMW. It’s a reminder to me, and everyone that goes on that growth journey, of what is possible.
Be part of the next chapter
Whether you’re a business that needs marketing or someone who’d like to work here, we’d like to hear from you.