Fife laundry firm hails impact of new facility

SERVICE: Fishers clean more than two million items of laundry each week

Fife-headquartered Fishers Laundry Group has said its investment in a new “super laundry” has helped mitigate against growing price pressure within the sector.

Newly lodged accounts for the year to December 31 show Cupar-based Fishers Topco Limited generated revenues of £36.12 million in the year to December 31 2016, an improvement on the £34.9m return of the previous 12 months.

Profit before interest tax and exceptional items came in at £2.2m, slightly lower than the previous year.

However, once one-off costs and other charges were taken into account, the group posted a pre-tax loss of £1.72m .

The total loss for the financial year was £1.94m, up from the £655,625 loss sustained in 2015. The accounts show that part of the exceptional expenditure related to the closure during the year of the firm’s historic site at Aberfeldy.

The property was the oldest in the group’s portfolio when Fishers announced its decision to close the doors in 2015.

The move came as Fishers moved to bring online a new £5m super laundry at Coatbridge.

The site opened its doors in March last year and has the capacity to service 12,000 hotel bedrooms.

The company said the new site had required significant investment.

However, it said the efficiencies it had brought had served to mitigate the effect of cost increases in the sector.

“We recognise that to maintain our position as market leader in Scotland, we must continue to innovate and invest and we are committed to doing so,” managing director Michael Jones said.

“Competitive pricing pressure remains a feature of the UK commercial laundry sector and we will continue to focus our efforts on providing our customers with the best service that meets their needs, consistent with the standards that are synonymous with Fishers.”

Fishers’ seven laundry sites across Scotland and the north of England clean, iron and deliver more than two million separate items every week.

The firm, which employs more than 800 staff, provides linen to a diverse range of clients in the hospitality industry, healthcare, manufacturing and pharmaceutical sectors.

business@thecourier.co.uk

Top: Fishers’ managing director Michael Jones shows off new digital chipping technology that can track the location and lifespan of individual items of laundry. Above: A Fishers lorry.