Profits at laundry firm hit £46m following acquisition

Operating profits at laundry firm Johnson Services Group were up by 6.2% to £46m.

The firm has published its preliminary results for the last 12 months.

Revenues were up by more than 10% to £321.4m and profit before taxation increased by 71.% to £42.5m.

The Cheshire based company said its strong financial performance reflects organic revenue growth of 7.8%2 and contribution from acquisitions.

These included the acquisition of the HORECA linen business, South West Laundry in August of last year. There are also plans for new high volume linen plant in Leeds on for Spring 2020.

Chief executive Peter Egan said: “Our strategy of driving the quality of growth organically by investing capital in our operations, coupled with selective acquisitions, has delivered another strong year of substantial growth with both divisions achieving higher levels of new business.

“We are continuing to focus on growing the business through targeted investment in our current sites, developing new capacity where market opportunities have been identified and expanding geographical coverage through acquisition.

“The combination of these three strands allow us the platform to continue to provide an excellent service to our customer base. We remain confident in the year ahead.”

Total net debt at the year-end stood at £98.4 million.

The group’s strong trading performance and cash generation helped to offset the impact of both the acquisition made in the year and our significant investment in capital expenditure across the business.

The firm reported another year of substantial organic growth with both divisions delivering higher levels of new business wins and maintaining consistently high levels of customer satisfaction scores which in turn contributed to very high retention levels.

The planned capital investment programme was accelerated during the year in many existing locations to ensure improved efficiencies and to create additional capacity to meet the demands from the strong organic sales generated throughout the year.