How Purdy & Figg Built a £40M Empire Selling... Cleaning Products?

Hey, it's Arik.

Welcome back to Brand of the Month, where I spotlight brands that are absolutely crushing it and break down exactly what they're doing right so you can apply those lessons to your own business.

This month, I want to talk about a brand that took one of the most boring, commoditized product categories imaginable (cleaning supplies) and turned it into a £40 million business in just a few years.

I'm talking about Purdy & Figg.

If you haven't heard of them, they're the UK-based brand that's completely reimagined what cleaning products can be. They've grown 10,900% from £452K to £50M between 2021 and 2024, they're acquiring up to 9,000 new customers per month, and nearly 50% of their new customers subscribe to recurring deliveries.

But here's what makes their story so fascinating: they created an entirely new category that sits at the intersection of wellness, sustainability, and home care.

Let me show you exactly how they did it and what you can learn from their approach.


The Origin Story: From NHS Nurse to £40M Brand
Purdy & Figg started in 2018 when two best friends, Purdy Rubin, an NHS nurse, and Charlotte Figg, a horticulturist, began experimenting with chemical-free cleaning formulas in Rubin's garage.

Their motivation wasn't to build a business initially. They were frustrated with the toxic chemicals in conventional cleaners and the environmental impact of single-use plastic bottles. As a nurse, Purdy was particularly concerned about the health effects of the chemicals people were bringing into their homes every day.

They collaborated with chemist Dr. Anna Slastanova to develop formulas that could actually rival conventional brands in effectiveness while offering spa-like scents and complete sustainability. The key insight was that they didn't want to create "natural" products that didn't work, they wanted to create natural products that worked better than the conventional alternatives.

In 2019, Purdy's sons Charlie and Jack Rubin joined the business and transformed it from a garage operation into a digital-first, subscription-focused company. This shift to a subscription model became the foundation of everything that followed.

After some early success selling hand sanitizer during the pandemic (which boosted their visibility), they officially launched their hero product, Counter Clean, in early 2022. The rest, as they say, is history.


The Category Creation Strategy
Instead of trying to compete in the traditional cleaning products category, which is dominated by massive companies with huge marketing budgets, they created their own category entirely.

They positioned themselves not as a cleaning brand, but as a wellness brand that happens to make cleaning products. They turned cleaning from a chore into a spa-like ritual. Their tagline "Cleaning Is Jazz" perfectly captures this positioning: cleaning becomes something confident, stylish, and enjoyable rather than something you have to get through.

This category creation allowed them to avoid direct price competition with brands like Flash or Zoflora.


The Product Strategy: Simplicity and Focus
One of the most impressive things about Purdy & Figg is how they've achieved £40M in revenue with essentially two hero products: Counter Clean (all-purpose cleaner) and Bathroom Bliss (bathroom cleaner), plus their Oh! de Loo scented drops.

Instead of trying to have a product for every possible cleaning need, they focused on doing a few things exceptionally well. Counter Clean can replace up to 15 traditional cleaning products, which simplifies the customer's life while increasing the value proposition.

The "Bottles for Life" system is central to their model. Customers receive beautiful glass bottles that they keep forever, with concentrated refills delivered every 90 days. This creates several advantages:

• Environmental appeal: No single-use plastic, concentrated formulas reduce shipping impact
• Aesthetic appeal: The glass bottles are beautiful enough to display, turning functional products into home décor
• Economic appeal: The refill system is more cost-effective than buying new bottles constantly
• Subscription foundation: The refill cycle naturally creates recurring revenue

The product quality is genuinely superior to conventional alternatives. They use 100% plant-based formulas with pure essential oils (not synthetic fragrances), they're pH-neutral and non-toxic, and they're made in the UK under strict regulations.


The Subscription Model That Prints Money
Nearly 50% of new customers subscribe, which is exceptionally high for e-commerce. Most brands struggle to get even 10-15% of customers to subscribe.

Their 90-day refill cycle is perfectly calibrated. It's long enough that customers don't feel overwhelmed by frequent deliveries, but short enough to maintain engagement and prevent churn. The concentrated formulas last exactly 90 days with normal use, so customers run out right when their next delivery arrives.

The pricing strategy is brilliant. They offer deep discounts on starter kits (sometimes 65% off) to drive subscription acquisition. For example, their Signature Starter Kit is £19.95 (originally £57.00). They're willing to lose money or break even on the first purchase because they know the lifetime value of a subscriber is much higher than a one-time buyer.

The flexibility they offer actually increases retention rather than decreasing it. Customers can pause, skip, or cancel anytime, which removes the feeling of being trapped. When people feel in control of their subscription, they're more likely to stay subscribed long-term.


The Marketing Strategy That Drove 10,900% Growth
Purdy & Figg's marketing approach is a masterclass in modern brand building. They've grown primarily through influencer marketing and social media rather than traditional advertising.

Social Media:
They have over 300,000 TikTok followers with 3.6M likes, plus strong presences on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. Their content strategy focuses on cleaning hacks, refill demonstrations, eco-tips, and aesthetic "cleaning as ritual" content.

💡 The key insight is that they show a lifestyle. Their content makes cleaning look enjoyable, meditative, and aesthetically pleasing.

Influencer Strategy:
They work with 50+ macro influencers per month, but their real success comes from micro-influencer seeding campaigns. They've run 27 micro-influencer seeding campaigns that focus on authentic content over polished ads.

Agency Partnerships:
They work with Kynship for influencer marketing and Aspire for paid advertising. These partnerships have delivered incredible results:

61% reduction in customer acquisition cost
772% increase in new customer revenue
555% Meta revenue growth in 60 days
78% ROAS increase in 60 days


What Makes Them Different: The Superpowers
Superpower #1: Wellness-Cleaning Intersection
They created the "wellness cleaning" category. This allows premium positioning and avoids price competition.

Superpower #2: Authentic Founder Story
Created by an NHS nurse and horticulturist (not a corporate entity), now run by a family with genuine commitment to health and sustainability.

Superpower #3: Product Quality and Experience
The products actually work better than conventional alternatives while offering a spa-like experience.

Superpower #4: Subscription Economics
Nearly 50% subscription rate on new customers creates predictable recurring revenue and high lifetime value.

Superpower #5: Aesthetic Differentiation
In a category dominated by ugly plastic bottles, their beautiful glass "Bottles for Life" create clear visual differentiation and make the products displayable.

Superpower #6: Lean Operations
They've scaled to £40M with minimal outside funding (just £2M angel round) and only 50 employees. This shows exceptional unit economics and operational efficiency.


The Distribution Strategy
Purdy & Figg has deliberately avoided mass retail, focusing instead on direct-to-consumer sales through their website. This decision has several strategic advantages:

1. Higher margins: No retail markup means they keep more of each sale
2. Brand control: They control the entire customer experience from discovery to delivery
3. Subscription focus: Retail doesn't support their subscription model
4. Premium positioning: Avoiding mass retail helps maintain their premium brand image

This DTC-first approach has allowed them to build direct relationships with customers and optimize their subscription model without the constraints of retail partnerships.

What You Can Learn From Purdy & Figg

Lesson 1: Create Your Own Category
Instead of competing in an existing category, create a new one where you can set the rules.

Lesson 2: Subscription-First from Day One
Build your entire business model around subscriptions rather than adding them as an afterthought.

Lesson 3: Simplicity in Product Line
Focus on doing a few things exceptionally well rather than trying to serve every possible need.

Lesson 4: Aesthetics as Strategy
Beautiful packaging isn't just nice-to-have, it's a competitive advantage.

Lesson 5: Influencer Marketing Over Traditional Advertising
Their growth was driven primarily by micro-influencer seeding, not traditional advertising. This created more authentic awareness and better unit economics.

Lesson 6: Quality as Foundation
You can't build a sustainable brand on marketing alone, the product has to deliver on the promise.

Lesson 7: Lean Scaling
You don't always need massive funding to scale rapidly.

See you next Thursday,
Arik