Clean up with laundry expert’s sparkling profits

PETER Egan was a student on the west coast of Ireland when he took a summer job as a nightshift worker, sorting hospital linen. Today, 27 years later, he is chief executive of Johnson Service

Group, one of Britain’s top laundering firms.

Egan is a laundry man through and through. He has been at Johnsons since 1998 and his commitment is yielding results. The group has made impressive progress since Midas recommended the shares at 19p in 2010. They had soared to £1.14 when we looked again in 2017.

Now they are £2.06 and there should be further gains.

The company provides uniforms for 1.3 million workers at firms including Jaguar Land Rover, Morrisons and several big food manufacturers. There is a thriving hotel, restaurant and catering division too. Each week the group supplies 8.5 million towels, linen, napiery and uniforms to customers ranging from the Premier Inn chain to Wembley stadium to the fashionable Wolseley restaurant in Mayfair, west London.

All these customers need to know that their items will be delivered on time and ready for use and Johnson prides itself on service. The company has invested heavily in equipment and IT, so kit is state of the art, water and energy use is minimised and automation is on the rise, including machines that can iron shirts and fold napkins.

Egan is highly focused on

Johnson’s 6,000 employees too and an award-winning training academy helps staff to learn new skills, feel part of the company and move up the ladder.

Johnsons is not the cheapest in the market but it tries to be the best. Customers rarely leave and the group is steadily winning new business. A recent trading update was optimistic and brokers forecast a 10 per cent increase in 2019 profits to £46million, rising to £49 million this year. A dividend of 3.4p is expected for 2019, moving to 3.6p in 2020. Traded on: AIM Ticker: JSG Contact: jsg.com or advisers Camarco on 020 3757 4991