Buyer in the wings for stricken Jim’s Plumbing: Jim Penman

Jim’s Group head and founder Jim Penman says a potential buyer is waiting to pick up the Jim’s Plumbing group if a wind-up notice initiated by the Australian Taxation Office is successful, although the head the South Australian franchise insists his debt is payable.

The ATO announced last week that it had initiated a wind-up notice for Jim’s Plumbing, which is run by David Ellingsen.

“[David] has the national rights for Jim’s Plumbing. I don’t have a share of it,” Penman told SmartCompany.

Penman also says Ellingsen is “confident he can pay his tax bill, but if he can’t there’s a very interested buyer in the wings”.

However, Penman says the buyer is “definitely not” him.

Ellingsen was contacted for comment this morning, but was not available before publication.

The size of the tax debt is unknown, although the Tax Office has said that if the notice is not addressed in a certain amount of time, the company can be wound up.

A hearing is currently set for July 20th in the Adelaide Federal Court.

The franchise actually started as Metropolitan Plumbing in the 1980s.

Penman says many of the company’s employees wanted to start out on their own, so the company approached him with the idea of using his own “Jim’s Group” branding.

As a result, Metropolitan uses all of its own infrastructure and the Jim’s name. Penman says this was the first of a number of different rebranding exercises the Jim’s Group is undertaken.

It is unknown how many franchisees the company has currently, but it has plumbers in every state except Tasmania and the Northern Territory.

The company has set a target of 100 franchisees by the end of 2012.