Pimlico Plumbers: Sale Price, Hourly Rates & Net Worth

Most Londoners know the name Pimlico Plumbers long before they know the story behind it. The green vans are everywhere, and the brand went from a one-man plumbing shop founded by Charlie Mullins to a business sold in 2021 for a reported £125–145 million, per BBC News (UK public broadcaster).

Years in business: Over 45 ·
Founder: Charlie Mullins ·
Services: Plumbing, heating, renovations ·
Headquarters: London, UK

Six rows capture the whole arc: a founder’s shop, a nine-figure sale, and a lifetime of earnings packed into one deal.

What happened with Pimlico Plumbers?

Pimlico Plumbers spent more than four decades as one of London’s most recognisable independent trades. In September 2021, that identity changed: the company joined Neighborly, a US home-services group, in what became one of the biggest plumbing deals in British business.

How much did Charlie sell Pimlico Plumbers for?

• The Telegraph reported that Mullins’ stake could be worth up to £130 million (The Telegraph)
• Bloomberg later described the transaction as a £140 million deal that moved Pimlico into KKR’s Neighborly platform (Bloomberg)
• This is Money reported Mullins’ total earnings from the business reached £200 million after the sale (This is Money)

The exact price was never formally announced, which is why three credible outlets produced three similar numbers. The pattern: a founder sells, a private-equity platform consolidates, and the public is left to estimate what the cheque actually said.

How rich is Charlie Mullins?

• The Sun put Mullins’ net worth at £70 million in 2022 (The Sun)
• London Insider estimates his wealth at £70m–£80m (London Insider)
• Finty put the figure at about $88 million in 2023 (Finty (personal-finance data site))
• In 2015, Mullins told This is Money the business itself was worth £50 million at the time (This is Money)

The spread matters: Mullins’ wealth came from a private sale, so no public document settles the debate. The lower-end estimates alone put him in eight-figure territory, and the sale proceeds sit on top of decades of salary, dividends, and personal spending he has described openly over the years.

How much do Pimlico Plumbers charge per hour?

There is no official rate card, so the clearest picture of pricing comes from customers who shared their invoices online. The reported numbers cluster in a range that is unmistakably premium.

• £150 per hour for a call-out job — cited on a Trustpilot review page (Trustpilot)
• £120 per hour + VAT — mentioned in another Trustpilot review (Trustpilot)
• £120 per hour + VAT — also cited in a complaint on Yell (Yell)
• £850 “full day rate” + VAT + parts — for a four-hour job, according to a Yell customer (Yell)
• £190 per hour + VAT — the rate one ComplaintsBoard customer says they were quoted (ComplaintsBoard)

How much should a plumber charge for 2 hours work?

• At £120/hour: £240 for two hours
• At £150/hour: £300 for two hours
• At £190/hour: £380 for two hours

Those numbers sit before parts, travel, or call-out fees. Two hours of actual work rarely shows up as two hours on the bill, which is why the only useful question is the written quote before work starts.

How much does a plumber cost to fix a toilet in the UK?

• A straightforward toilet repair can fit within a one-hour visit — at the reported rates, that’s roughly £120–£190 plus parts
• One ComplaintsBoard post described a repair that ended up costing £144 after the customer expected a one-hour visit (ComplaintsBoard)

The £144 example is the useful one: the quote said one hour, the job ran longer, and the final invoice outran the estimate. In practice, a like-for-like toilet swap usually takes most of a morning, so expect the first-hour rate plus part of the second.

Do all plumbers charge a call out fee?

• Pimlico’s review history refers to a “call-out job” billed at £150/hour — the trip charge appears built into the hourly rate (Trustpilot)
• A Yell complaint mentions a “full day rate” of £850 + VAT + parts — so fixed-day pricing exists in some cases (Yell)

Across London, call-out fees are standard practice; with Pimlico, the reported pattern is a blended rate rather than a separate trip surcharge. The lesson is to ask how travel is billed before booking — not when the invoice arrives.

What are people saying about Pimlico Plumbers pest control services?

Pest control sits on Pimlico’s service list, but it is not where the public reputation is built. Reviews concentrate on plumbing, heating, and emergency call-outs — and the same split appears again and again.

• Praise centres on professional engineers, polite service, and fast response times (Trustpilot)
• Complaints centre on price, with a Yell customer citing a four-hour job billed at £850 “full day rate” plus VAT and parts (Yell)
• Recurring friction appears on ComplaintsBoard, where customers describe quoted rates changing once the work is underway (ComplaintsBoard)

The pattern in the reviews is remarkably consistent: the job gets done, and the invoice stings. That is a stable position for a premium brand — the complaints target the bill, not the workmanship or punctuality.

What are the signs of a good plumber?

Pimlico’s own story is the case study: a one-man outfit that turned word-of-mouth into a national brand. The signals that got it there are the same ones to look for in any tradesperson.

• Credentials — for gas work in the UK, registration with the Gas Safe Register is non-negotiable
• Insurance and references — a professional carries public liability cover and can point to named, recent customers
• Written estimates — reliable plumbers put the price in writing before starting
• Transparent billing — hourly rate, call-out charge, and parts should be itemised

The red flags are just as clear: no printed quote, a cash-only discount, or a phone number that changes when the job grows. Good plumbing is boring — the excitement should stay in the pipes, not the invoice.

Do plumbers earn 100k?

• At the customer-reported £120/hour rate, 25 billable hours across 45 weeks equals £135,000 gross — before vehicle, insurance, tools, and downtime
• At the higher reported end of £190/hour, the same schedule pushes toward £200,000+ gross (ComplaintsBoard)

So yes, six-figure earnings are realistic for experienced plumbers with strong reputations — the catch is that running a business eats into that gross. Charlie Mullins is the extreme example: the same trade that pays a plumber £100,000 a year built a reported net worth of £70 million or more (London Insider).

What is the most common plumbing repair?

The jobs that fill a plumber’s diary rarely change. Dripping taps, running toilets, and blocked drains are the classics — small parts, quick fixes, and invoices that feel large compared with the effort involved.

• Leaky faucets — worn washers and cartridges
• Running toilets — flush valves and fill valves
• Blocked drains — the daily bread of drainage engineers

Each of these can usually be diagnosed within an hour, which is exactly why honest plumbers charge for the visit, not just the part.

How long does it take a plumber to fit a new toilet?

• A straight like-for-like swap typically takes one to three hours
• If the waste pipe, flange, or flooring needs reworking, allow a half day
• At Pimlico’s customer-reported rates, a two-hour swap costs roughly £240–£300 before parts

The gap between a leaky loo and a full replacement is where surprise costs live. The safest approach for any job: get the quote in writing, confirm what happens if the work runs over, and check whether parts are marked up.

Pimlico Plumbers timeline

• 1979 (approx): Charlie Mullins starts Pimlico Plumbers as a one-man operation (The Sun)
• 20 September 2021: The Telegraph reports the sale of Pimlico Plumbers to Neighborly (The Telegraph)
• 2024: Bloomberg reports that private equity is still buying family-owned plumbers — and that Mullins has regrets about selling (Bloomberg)

The pattern is the point: a founder’s brand becomes a platform asset, the founder walks away with a reported nine-figure sum, and customers are left to discover whether quality follows the new ownership structure.

What we know and what we don’t

The public record separates cleanly into confirmed facts and open questions.

The implication: the public record has firm boundaries, but the dollar signs remain fuzzy. Customers and analysts alike work from estimates, not disclosures.

What customers and the founder say

Three voices capture the tension between Pimlico’s reliability and its pricing.

Bloomberg reports that Mullins now regrets the sale — a telling turnaround for a founder who spent four decades building the brand.

Charlie Mullins, as reported by Bloomberg

Reviewers on Trustpilot describe the engineers as professional, polite, and fast — and the final cost as the painful part of the experience.

A Pimlico Plumbers customer, via Trustpilot

One Yell complaint cites a “full day rate” of £850 plus VAT and parts for a job that lasted four hours.

A Pimlico Plumbers customer, via Yell

The pattern across all three: the service delivers, but the price tag stings. That tension defines the brand’s reputation.

What the sale means for customers

The sale turned a one-man shop into a unit of a global private-equity roll-up. The numbers are large — up to £145 million for the company (BBC News), up to £130 million for the founder’s stake (The Telegraph) — but the customer experience still comes down to a simple trade: reliable, fast, expensive. For Londoners, the decision is clear: keep Pimlico for emergencies and demand a written fixed quote before any work starts — or book an independent local plumber and accept a longer wait for a smaller bill.

The catch: private equity needs returns. If service quality slips while prices stay high, the brand equity that made the sale possible erodes. Customers are the ones who will notice first.

Related reading

• George Lucas: Net Worth, Life Now & Disney Sale Regret — another founder who sold early and questioned it
• Duncan Bannatyne Net Worth 2025: Still a Multi-Millionaire — how British entrepreneurs stay rich after the exit

Both cases echo Pimlico’s arc: a founder builds, sells, and then watches from the sidelines as a new owner runs the business.

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