Member Article

Pimlico Plumbers proves confidence that has boosted GDP

Pimlico Plumbers, the UK’s largest independent plumbing company, has reported record sales for the last 12 months, demonstrating the effect of consumer confidence that has helped to boost Gross Domestic Product.

On the day the Office of National Statistics revealed that the UK economy grew by 0.6 percent between April and June 2013, Pimlico Plumbers has announced that it achieved revenues of £18.19 million for its financial year 2012-13, which ended on May 31 – an increase in sales on £1.1m for the previous year.

Reflecting the poor performance of the economy in the middle part of 2012, the company, which employs more than 170 tradesmen and a support team of around 50 staff, saw a drop in sales by £80,000 in June 2012 and in September revenues had dropped more than 10 percent below the level achieved in 2011-12.

However, October proved to be a turning point for Pimlico Plumbers, which its founder, Charlie Mullins, believes was more than a seasonal upturn, but proof of an economic upturn. The company has gone on to record eight straight months of record sales.

Charlie Mullins said: “This morning’s growth figures of 0.6 percent are sweet music to my ears, but are by no means a surprise. And after living through what appeared at some stages in the past five years to be a funeral dirge playing for our economy, I think every person in the country, and especially the business community, should be celebrating today.

“As a business we experienced a pretty tough period between June and October 2012, but, as the economic tide has lifted, I am proud to say so have we and the hard work we put in led to eight straight record months that put the company £1.1million above our previous best trading year.

“Back in the days when we still believed we were riding through a supposed ‘double dip’ recession I was seeing our customers were beginning to act in a way that I hadn’t seen since pre-banking collapse, pre-credit crunch, pre-recessionary days.

“They were again investing in their homes, starting to dare to think about the future, rather than mending and making do in the here and now. The banks weren’t, and still aren’t, lending to small businesses, but there was mortgage money starting to slush about again, fuelling a resurgence in the housing market.

“Certainly there was increased activity in service industries like us, and I felt then that we were uniquely linked to construction and manufacturing so as to be in a position to realistically predict better things on the horizon across the board.

“We are starting to see clear blue skies ahead of us after flying through a very large economic cloud. It’s important to kick on from here to maintain the growth. Our sales results give me the confidence that they can be replicated across other businesses throughout the country and give the UK a firmer footing for the future.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Recognition PR Business Team .