Charlie Mullins, the entrepreneur who sold his Pimlico Plumbers business for £140 million just over a year ago, today declared that deal was “the biggest mistake of my life”.
Mullins, dubbed Britain’s first millionaire plumber, sold his business to US giant Neighbourly at the end of 2021. He set up Pimlico Plumbers after leaving school at 15 with no qualifications and becoming an apprentice. He started his business in 1979 from a Pimlico estate agent’s basement, with a second-hand van and a bag of tools, and built it up into a £50 million-a-year trade empire.
Mullins, who grew up with his parents and three brothers on a council estate in Camden, owns a string of properties around the world, and was awarded an OBE in the 2015 new year honours for services to plumbing.
But he told the Standard that his biggest business regret was over the sale. He said: “It was my lifetime’s work, I put everything into this company, and I thought it would go on to become a bigger and stronger business under the Americans, to go national and then into Europe. But when a company buys something, they don’t have the passion a founder does — and Americans also have a different outlook. I feel bad for my staff, my customers — I feel like I’ve let them down.
“Celebrities phone me up asking what’s going on at Pimlico Plumbers? Now it no longer has the Mullins name attached to it, it doesn’t have the same draw now for customers. I got carried away with the money, but has it changed my life? No, I’ve got the same villas and houses. I used to live and breathe Pimlico Plumbers — but now, I don’t have the same drive and passion.”
The passionate remainer erected a giant “b******s to Brexit” sign on the roof of his headquarters near Waterloo, despite Lambeth council demanding he remove it or face prosecution.
He hit the headlines in 2021 for introducing a mandatory requirement for becoming one of the first employers to insist all staff had received a Covid vaccine, threatening to fire staff who refused without a valid reason.
Mullins hinted he could re-enter the industry once his three-year lock-out period ends. “My family have realised that London is now again screaming out for a successful family-run services business. If I didn’t have a restraining order on me we’d be opening up tomorrow — I’ve never retired and don’t plan to retire.”
