º£½ÇÊÓƵ

A Canadian laundry giant is looking to extend its operations into the Midlands and southern England after taking over a historic North West laundry and linen group.

K-Bro Linen, which already owns Scottish laundry brand Fishers, has taken over Cumbrian firm Shortridge in a deal worth up to £26.1m.

Shortridge was founded in 1845 in Dumfries by Thomas Shortridge. It merged with Cumbria’s North West Laundry in the early 2000s and today serves more than 1,200 independent hospitality customers from its sites in Dumfries, Workington and Darlington.

Alberta-based K-Bro was founded in 1954 and has become Canada’s largest operator of laundry and linen processing sites. It runs ten processing sites and two distribution centres under the brands K-Bro Linen Systems and Buanderie HMR.

In 2017 K-Bro acquired Fishers, which operates five sites in Scotland and the North East of England and focuses on the hospitality, healthcare, manufacturing and pharmaceutical sectors.

Announcing the deal, Linda McCurdy, president and CEO of K-Bro, said: “While our original plans to grow our presence in the º£½ÇÊÓƵ were interrupted by the Covid pandemic, we have stayed on the alert for further growth opportunities in the º£½ÇÊÓƵ, and I am excited by the potential that this acquisition presents for us and for Shortridge's customers. We share the same values as Shortridge, so the cultural fit is strong and the business has found a good home as part of the K-Bro family.

"This is a great opportunity for us to diversify our customer base in the º£½ÇÊÓƵ and to position our combined º£½ÇÊÓƵ business for more growth as we look to extend K-Bro's geographic reach further south into the º£½ÇÊÓƵ."

Shortridge’s shareholders appointed FRP Corporate Finance as lead advisor on the sale of the business.