plumbing companies

pete the plumber · 02-02-2014 4:23pm #1

Hi All, I'm curious to find out the level of plumbing companies operating in Ireland at the minute and i have a couple of questions,

1. are there any big companies operating that just concentrate on the domestic market, i.e not bothered with large contracts and developments or anything like that,

2. is there any main company or companies that spring to mind when we need a plumber

3. is ireland big enough for a major domestic plumbing company

Im just trying to do some research into this at the minute, one company that springs to mind for me is Pimlico Plumbers in london who are massive, i follow them a bit particularly the blog and any media that they do and i just find it incredible what charlie mullins (managing director) has achieved, I under stand London is massive in terms to dublin or ireland in fact but can this or is this being done here at the minute?

dpofloinn · 02-02-2014 4:39pm

Outside of industrial companies I would imagine most companies these days are 1 or 2 man operations.Back in the ''good times'' there were plenty of moderately large companies of 10 to 20 man operations but those numbers included apprentices and plumbers mates.Ireland is far too small to sustain a large nation wide company especially when you consider how many smaller operators are here,and specialising only in domestic would be far too limited to sustain large companies and added to that you have utility companies like Bord gais offering boiler servicing it would be a loosing battle

shane0007 · 02-02-2014 5:32pm

3 words: Economies of scale

Pimlico Plumbers are unreal. I have followed their progress with great interest as they began when I lived in London. You have to take your hat off to them.

However, they are dealing with a completely scaleable marketplace. Even London was not big enough for them so they branched into the surrounding counties & surrounding regions.

They have a Stg£18 million turnover per annum.
You just couldn't do anything close to that in Ireland. Population is far too small & sparsely spread out.

pete the plumber · 02-02-2014 6:01pm

shane0007 wrote: »

3 words: Economies of scale

Pimlico Plumbers are unreal. I have followed their progress with great interest as they began when I lived in London. You have to take your hat off to them.

However, they are dealing with a completely scaleable marketplace. Even London was not big enough for them so they branched into the surrounding counties & surrounding regions.

They have a Stg£18 million turnover per annum.
You just couldn't do anything close to that in Ireland. Population is far too small & sparsely spread out.

yes i probably agree now when you take population etc into the picture,

they really are an incredible company,

Is there anything or anyone similar to the way pimlico operate here in ireland,

shane0007 · 02-02-2014 6:14pm

pete the plumber wrote: »

Is there anything or anyone similar to the way pimlico operate here in ireland,

I think QBE aka CorkPlumber aka SpongePlumber aka ILikeMarchingRoundMyFrontRoom was starting a company to take on Bord Gais & put them out if business. :-)
Not sure how far that has come on. There might have been staffing issues.

Apart from that, I can't see there been anything remotely close to Pimlico Plumbers. It would certainly be nice to be involved in something as good as them.

Billy Bunting · 02-02-2014 6:43pm

shane0007 wrote: »

I can't see there been anything remotely close to Pimlico Plumbers..

ILikeMarchingRoundMyFrontRoom will take it on. :P

anthonyos · 02-02-2014 10:38pm

How many employees have pimlico plumber's got .... but the brand they have is key its so well known

K.Flyer · 03-02-2014 4:29am

Hi Pete, to get some idea of what is happening go to the "find an installer" at www.rgii.ie and just hit the search button.
Scrolling down you will see mostly the one man operations but there are some with 10+ operatives.
As said before, it comes down to scale of population. Pimlico is an amazing operation and if I found myself heading across to the U.K. for work it would be the first door I would knock on.

splanagan22 · 03-02-2014 9:19am

I lived in London for most if last year and everywhere I went I can across pimlico plumbers. They are everywhere

Incredible operation and very highly regarded in London.

Very hard to get in the door as well. Applied a few times for a job an got a call once to come in for an interview but then they never came back to confirm.

All there lads are contracted into them and they rent the van. Phone. Uniform et off him and they take 50% of all the earnings. Good money to be made with them of you have the right mentality and can easily work all the hours put your way.

antoinolachtnai · 07-02-2014 3:38pm

So is Pimlico basically a marketing, quality and van hire operation which doesn't employ any actual plumbers itself?

plumbing companies

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