Management takeover at Scottish cleaning firm

Wednesday 05th of December 2007

The management at Scotland's largest textile cleaning and rental firm has taken a majority stake in the company, following the arrangement of a finance deal with the Bank of Scotland.

The buyout of Fishers Services sees the team take a 80 per cent share, up from 30 per cent. Bank of Scotland will take the remaining 20 per cent share, with the company valued at £40 million overall. The firm launders and rents out table and bed linen, towels and other items to the hospitality sector.

It also services the healthcare, electronics, pharmaceuticals and food-processing sectors with garment laundering and rental.

Bruce McHardy has been named Fishers' managing director, after five years spent as its deputy managing director

"Due to consolidation in the market, there are not a lot of other companies around to be hoovered up, so our growth is more likely to be organic," he told The Scotsman newspaper.

"We have set realistic and some might say conservative targets, as there are only so many new hotels opening, so we are not likely to see massive expansion."