Pimlico Plumbers, which claims to be the UK's largest independent plumbing company, has formalised its plans to expand its Spanish operation on the Costa del Sol.
The company, which has its base in Lambeth, South London, has been providing plumbing and property maintenance services to holiday home owners and the region's large expat community on a limited scale for just over two years.
A permanent office in Marbella will open in July headed by a new operations director, Craig Bly, and the company is in the progress of recruiting a team of 12 engineers to expand on its existing operation.
Currently, enquiries and job bookings from Spain are redirected to Pimlico's large contact centre in central London. From this summer, all projects will be managed from the Marbella offices.
The expansion of Pimlico's Costa del Sol operation has been borne out of a growing requirement for property maintenance from British holiday home owners who prefer to use UK trades people.
In addition, Pimlico has experienced a considerable rise in enquiries and jobs from British residents in the region who have seen the company's highly-recognisable blue and white vans.
Pimlico Plumbers will also ship a further batch of its vehicles to Spain featuring the same specialist equipment employed in the UK to ensure the standard of facilities available to engineers on site is equivalent to those used by its plumbers in London.
'I'm really pleased to be able to establish a much larger presence in Spain,' said Charlie Mullins, managing director of Pimlico Plumbers.
'What started out as a small job sending a couple of our vans over to Marbella to work on my holiday villa has turned into a very positive business opportunity.
'All of a sudden we were getting calls from holiday home owners and expats who had seen the vans wanting us to work on their properties. Since then it has really gained momentum and allowed us to set up a dedicated division for the region.
'The huge expat community is very close knit and we have already established a good reputation along the Costa del Sol, which made this a straightforward decision.
'We will be looking to bring in some new experienced engineers but there have been some interesting enquiries already our London-based engineers who would love to work in the sun,' added Charlie.