I’m all the way down to my final £100m! Charlie Mullins plots new handyman enterprise

Ask the common founder or chief govt what will get them off the bed, and most mumble a mistruth about making a distinction, whereas quietly pocketing a seven-figure wage.

Not Charlie Mullins. ‘Money motivates me,’ declares the spiky-haired entrepreneur who bought Pimlico Plumbers to US residence companies big Neighborly in 2021 for £140million.

‘It bought this,’ he provides, waving his arm at his £11million house on the river Thames, the place Tom Jones lives one flooring up. ‘Money is why I got into plumbing.’

Mullins arrange Pimlico Plumbers after leaving college at 15 with no {qualifications} to turn into an apprentice to Bill Ellis, ‘a plumber who had everything that I never had: nice car, clothes, jewellery. 

He told me, “Become an apprentice plumber, and you’ll by no means run out of labor, and also you’ll earn a great deal of cash.” He was proper.’

Mullins’ subsequent splurge is a far cry from his upbringing, in London’s Elephant and Castle.

The son of a manufacturing unit employee and a cleaner, he began his enterprise in 1979, constructing it up right into a £50million-a-year empire.

‘I’m all the way down to my final £100million,’ Mullins says. He now has a £30million Spanish villa complicated, a Rolls-Royce, and ‘at least 20 watches… although I never wind them up’.

‘You’re solely right here as soon as. I’m fairly completely happy to spend it – and I’ve given greater than 1,000,000 to charity this yr. I gained’t be the richest man within the graveyard.

 

‘But it’s clear the cash isn’t going to final without end.’

That’s one purpose why Mullins goes again to work, spending virtually £20million on launching a plumbing, electrical and constructing companies enterprise, We Fix.

He’s purchased premises, employed designers, and is buying 100 electrical vans in order that in September, on the day his three-year lock-out interval with Neighborly ends, We Fix is in enterprise.

‘We’re going to be a bit like Harrods,’ Mullins asserts. ‘We won’t be low-cost: we’ll cost £150 to £200 an hour, however individuals will at all times pay for high quality.

‘Customers will flock back to us. We’re going to construct a £500million household enterprise.’ Mullins claims celebrities from Pimlico days together with Simon Cowell and Joan Collins will come again. His son, Scott, will run it.

Pimlico’s sale to Neighborly, which is owned by US personal fairness big KKR, could have made him some huge cash however he provides: ‘Selling it is the biggest regret of my life.’

Now, he’s placing apprentices on the core of We Fix. ‘I won’t make use of anybody who hasn’t finished an apprenticeship. 

‘I’d like to recruit one for each tradesman, however the Government must get up and assist – every apprentice prices £45,000 for 3 years of coaching, after they’re not bringing something in. 

‘A correct, funded apprentice scheme would finish youth unemployment, abilities shortages, and a number of crime on the road.

‘I used to take schoolkids on tours of our office, telling them about my background – alcoholic parents, no money in the family, from an estate that no one wants to be on.

‘They’d see the posh bits in my workplace, footage of celebrities, I’d give them lunch within the canteen – and their thought of the office modified in these three hours.’ Mullins says the final time he did any plumbing was 35 years in the past however provides; ‘I’m at all times excited about it.’

Some of his set have tried to persuade him to stop Britain for a tax exile’s way of life overseas.

‘That’s not my angle,’ he says. ‘I paid £23million tax in January for the sale of the company, I’m glad to contribute one thing again.’

However, he’s heading into controversial territory with recruitment. ‘I won’t be taking over anybody who desires to be often called a sure particular person or a sure gender. You’re both male or feminine.

‘If you’re unsure, you’re not approaching with us.

‘If [someone] is available in saying, “I’m Mary, I want to work in the call centre” however they was once Trevor the bricklayer, they’re not getting the job.’

Mullins has a historical past of employment legislation battles, and misplaced a landmark case over vacation pay. ‘If it’s towards the legislation, then it’s towards the legislation. We’ll put it in our phrases and circumstances.’

This yr, he’s in Dubai for Christmas, however firstly of his profession, his cellphone rang continuous over the interval.

Memorable callouts embrace one to Peter Stringfellow’s house whereas he was recording Come Dine With Me. 

Mullins says: ‘They were filming in one corner pretending everything’s pretty, whereas water was flooding out all over the place else.’

Good luck with the brand new enterprise, I say, because the entrepreneur waves me off. ‘Luck?’ Mullins responds, ‘Businesses don’t run on luck. They run on willpower, and concepts.

‘I’ve provide you with the products earlier than, why wouldn’t I once more?’