Appologies on the numbers, I've been doing this too long and mixing up the various requirements. In my experience, those who go from PPL to FI take around 300 hours. It is indeed 150 hrs PIC post PPL wheras with a CPL the requirement is only 100 hours PIC to obtain a CPL; a reduction of 50 hours. As the CPL course is only 25 hours it is a false economy not to do the CPL, especially as the exams run out after 3 years.