Johnson Service Group looks for London deals as laundry specialist cleans up on full-year results
Johnson Service Group is in talks with several companies in London about prospective takeover deals, as the laundry specialist looks to build out its offering in the capital.
The Aim-listed company’s chief executive Peter Egan told City A.M. he was looking to “bring on more capacity” in London. “Around the London area you have huge volume,” he said.
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“We’re talking to a number of independents and they’re talking to us.”
The textile services firm hiked its dividend to shareholders this morning after interim results came in ahead of expectations.
Pre-tax profit rose 8.6 per cent to £15.2m for the six months ending 30 June, while revenue rose 9.8 per cent to £167.1m.
As a result, it proposed a 15 per cent dividend hike to 1.15p a share.
JSG supplies workwear to companies across the UK, as well as linen and cleaning services for hotels and restaurants.
Egan said: “This is a strong performance reflecting excellent sales growth, the benefits of recent acquisitions and continued high levels of customer retention across all market sectors.”
“We are particularly pleased with the strength and quality of our organic performance which has been achieved by investing capital in our operations giving increased production capacity to meet growing customer demand.”
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“There is good momentum in the group and we have started the second half strongly,” Egan continued.
“In view of the encouraging performance over the summer months we anticipate that the results for the year will be slightly ahead of current expectations.”