science

Pimlico Plumbers

Pimlico Plumbers is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Pimlico Plumbers rather than just read about it. In short: Pimlico Plumbers is a London-based plumbing firm established in 1979. With revenues of £20m as of 2015, it is London's largest independent plumbing company.

Key takeaways

Pimlico Plumbers belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Pimlico Plumbers to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Pimlico Plumbers from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Pimlico Plumbers is a London-based plumbing firm established in 1979. With revenues of £20m as of 2015, it is London's largest independent plumbing company.

History Pimlico Plumbers was established in 1979 by Charlie Mullins (born December 1952), who left school at 15 with no qualifications and began work as a plumber. In September 2021, Mullins sold a 90% shareholding of Pimlico Plumbers to US home services group Neighborly in a deal worth between £125 million and £145 million. At the point of sale, the business had revenues of $70 million and employed over 400 people. Mullins' son, Scott Mullins, remains Chief Executive with a 10% stake. Mullins has lived in Costa del Sol since 2021.

Publicity The company owns more than 100 plumbing-related number plates, fitted to its fleet of vehicles, such as LO 02 OLD (Loo too old), BOG1, DRA1N, W4TER and others. It gained considerable publicity through its employment of Buster Martin, who claimed to be Britain's oldest worker, cleaning vans part-time until his death in 2011. The firm's boss presented BBC Three show Britain's Best Young Plumber, and has appeared on Secret Millionaire.

Legal issues In 2009, the firm was involved in a legal dispute with Steve Cosser, an Australian TV executive accused of industrial espionage in stealing Pimlico's client list after establishing a rival firm, Service Corps, using ex-Pimlico staff. Services Corps collapsed in January 2010 with debts of £100,000 before the case was settled. The company also had a dispute with rival firm Aspect over Trustpilot ratings. On 10 February 2017, in the Court of Appeal, a plumber who had initiated an Employment Tribunal case against the company in 2011 was found to have "worker" status for the purposes of various employment protection rights, notwithstanding that he had been engaged as a self-employed individual. Pimlico Plumbers argued the plumber was an independent contractor but the Court of Appeal determined he was a worker with some employment rights. The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom subsequently granted Pimlico permission to appeal, which, following a hearing on 20 and 21 February 2018, was unanimously dismissed.

Community involvement and Brexit stance The firm has been involved in a scheme in aid of the big society with the renovation of the Streatham Youth Centre. This was organised along with Wickes, A4e, and the Co-Sponsorship Agency. In 2018, the company was criticised for erecting a large "Bollocks to Brexit" sign on top of their premises in Waterloo. Mullins defended the use of the sign, referring to the Sex Pistols' 1977 album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols as precedent for being able to legally display the word in public.

Financials In November 2010, Mullins reported that he was considering floating the firm, with a £50m valuation, in order to fund a nationwide expansion. The firm's turnover was £18.2 million in 2013, with profits of more than £1,000,000.

References

External links

Official website

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Pimlico Plumbers

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Pimlico Plumbers claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Pimlico Plumbers before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Pimlico Plumbers ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Pimlico Plumbers

In research: Pimlico Plumbers appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Pimlico Plumbers in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Pimlico Plumbers is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Business services companies established in 1979, Companies based in the London Borough of Lambeth, Personal service companies, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Pimlico Plumbers outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Pimlico Plumbers in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Pimlico Plumbers means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Pimlico Plumbers out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Pimlico Plumbers in simple terms?

Pimlico Plumbers is a London-based plumbing firm established in 1979. With revenues of £20m as of 2015, it is London's largest independent plumbing company.

Why does Pimlico Plumbers matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Pimlico Plumbers?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Pimlico Plumbers.