NACE 43.221

Margins and profitability in plumbing installation

2,013 Norwegian companies in this industry. The median operating margin was 4.4 %, meaning what was left of revenue once every cost had been paid.

25 % of the companies in this industry posted a negative operating result that year.

In kroner

Revenue and operating profit

Revenue and operating profit
Median companyTop third
RevenueNOK 6,184,841NOK 6,358,379
Operating profitNOK 268,241NOK 983,469
Revenue per employeeNOK 1,766,277NOK 1,958,160

Revenue per employee is calculated on the 885 of 2,013 companies that report an employee count, as the median of the ratio within each company.

Median, not mean. A mean would be pulled up by the largest companies in the industry, and would say little about a typical one.

The distribution

What companies in the industry earned

One tenth of companies fell below -6.8 %, and one tenth above 17.2 %. That is the real spread in the industry, not an average.

Top against weakest third

Top third
13.5 %
Weakest third
-3.1 %
Spread
17 percentage points
Equity ratio
38.2 %median of 2,013

Size

Profitability by size

Profitability by size
RevenueCompaniesMedian operating margin
1 to 5 m8703.7 %
5 to 20 m7574.7 %
20 to 100 m3365.3 %
over 100 m505.2 %

Companies are split into revenue bands, with the median margin in each. Bands with fewer than ten companies are omitted, because the median becomes too unstable to show.

Geography

Where the companies are based

Where the companies are based
Oslo210
Trondheim33
Sandnes31
Drammen29
Kristiansand S27
Stavanger25

The six postal towns with the most companies in this industry, by registered business address.

Public contracts

Who in the industry wins public contracts

142 of 2,013 companies in the industry have won at least one public contract since 2022, that is 7.1 %.

Those that win have median revenue of NOK 37.4m, against NOK 5.5m for those that do not. That is 6.8× as much. It describes who wins, not evidence that contracts make companies large; large companies also find it easier to bid.

Who puts them out to tender

The 287 contracts we find come most often from these buyers.

Who puts them out to tender
Rogaland fylkeskommune21
Forsvarsbygg13
Vestland fylkeskommune13
Vestby kommune11
Viken Vest Innkjøpssamarbeid (VVI)11

Contracts come from Doffin and TED. Our collection is not complete, and TED covers only contracts above the EEA threshold, so the figures are a floor and not a full count. We say what we find, not what exists.

Questions and answers

Common questions about plumbing installation

What is a normal operating margin in plumbing installation?
The median operating margin was 4.4 %, meaning what was left of revenue once every cost had been paid. Half of the 2,013 companies in the sample were above it, and half below.
What separates the best from the weakest in plumbing installation?
The top third had an operating margin of 13.5 %, against -3.1 % for the weakest. The spread is 17 percentage points, within the same industry, the same country and the same year.
How many companies are there in plumbing installation in Norway?
We hold filed accounts for 2,013 Norwegian companies on this industry code with at least one million kroner in revenue. The real number is higher, since dormant and very small companies are excluded.
How much revenue does a company in Plumbing installation generate per employee?
The median company in Plumbing installation turns over NOK 1.8m per employee. The figure is calculated on the 885 of 2,013 companies that report an employee count.
How many are loss-making in plumbing installation?
25 % of the companies in the sample posted a negative operating result.
How large is a typical company in plumbing installation?
Median revenue is NOK 6.2m. Half of the companies fall between NOK 2.9m and NOK 15m.
How much do public contracts matter in plumbing installation?
142 of 2,013 companies, that is 7.1 %, have won at least one public contract since 2022. They have median revenue of NOK 37.4m, against NOK 5.5m for the rest.

Next

Related industries

Other industries in the same group

Method. 2,013 companies registered on industry code 43.221 (Plumbing installation) with filed accounts and at least one million kroner in revenue. The figures come from the Norwegian Register of Business Enterprises and are public. Operating margin is operating profit divided by operating revenue.

All figures are from the 2025 accounts as filed with the Brønnøysund Register Centre. The year comes from the accounting period, not from the filing date, so every company appears with the year its figures actually cover.

We show one cross-section and no trend line. Our database has broad coverage for 2024 and 2025, but only a small and non-random sample for the years before. A curve over a longer period would therefore measure who we happened to collect, not what happened in the industry.

Companies with under one million in revenue are excluded, because dormant limited companies would otherwise pull the median down. We do not publish an industry page until we hold at least 30 companies.

This is a description of an industry, not a ranking of companies. We name no individual company here.

2,013 companies · Brønnøysund Register Centre · Open tenders in this industry