Charlie Mullins, the businessman who sold his Pimlico plumbing business for £140m just over a year ago, said today that the move was “the biggest mistake of my life”.
Mullins, who is considered Britain’s first millionaire plumber, sold his business to US giant Neighbourly in late 2021. He founded Pimlico Plumbers after leaving school at 15 with no qualifications and becoming an apprentice. He started his business in 1979 in the basement of a Pimlico estate agent’s office, with a second-hand van and a bag of tools, and built it into a £50m-a-year business empire.
Mullins, who grew up with his parents and three siblings in a suburban Camden suburb, 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 the sale. He said: “It was my life’s work, I put everything into this company and I thought it would become a bigger, stronger business under the Americans, expanding domestically and then into Europe. But when a company buys something, it doesn’t have the passion that a founder has, and the Americans have a different outlook as well. I feel bad for my staff, my customers, I feel like I’ve let them down.
“Celebrities call me on the phone asking what’s going on at Pimlico Plumbers. It’s no longer under the Mullins name, it doesn’t have the same appeal to customers. I got carried away by the money, but has my life changed? No, I have the same villas and houses. I used to live and breathe Pimlico Plumbers, but I don’t have the same enthusiasm and passion now.”
The passionate Remain campaigner erected a giant banner reading “Brexit the bastards” on the roof of his headquarters near Waterloo, despite being required by Lambeth council to remove it or face prosecution.
In 2021 it made headlines for introducing a mandatory requirement to become one of the first employers to insist all staff had received the Covid vaccine, threatening to fire staff who refused without a valid reason.
Mullins hinted that he might re-enter the industry once his three-year lockout period is over. “My family have realised that London is crying out for a successful family service business. If I didn’t have a restraining order against me, we would be opening tomorrow. I have never retired and I don’t plan on retiring.”
