Sales and profits down at laundry firm Fishers

The Cupar-headquartered business, which cleans, irons and delivers more than two million items a week, saw turnover drop by £1 million to £34.8m after it said it “opted to withdraw from some tenders where price levels were insufficient to maintain its standards of service and investment”.

The fall in revenues, coupled with investment in plant and machinery and increased transport costs, saw operating profits drop by 17 per cent to £4.4m.

The company said changes introduced during 2014 designed to reduce central costs while protecting frontline services were now generating improved performance with a return to year on year revenue growth of 5 per cent this year.

Michael Jones, managing director, said: “At Fishers, we are proud of our high service standards and we took the decision not to compromise on these which created a slight fall in revenues in 2014.”

Jones said he was confident that the company’s strategy was the right one and they were already seeing a return to growth in 2015.

He added: “We will continue to invest in maintaining and improving our customer service for the hospitality sector and we have a number of exciting new initiatives in the pipeline that we plan to announce shortly.”

Fishers was established in 1900 and provides linen rental, workwear hire and cleanroom garment services to the hospitality, healthcare, manufacturing and pharmaceutical sectors.

The business operates from seven sites in Scotland and the north of England and employs almost 800 people. The highest paid director at the company received £239,071 last year.