Bradford’s Enviro Wipes acquired by Finnish multinational group Lindström

Enviro Wipes, a Bradford-based supplier of recyclable industrial wipes, has been sold to Finnish multinational textile service group Lindström.

Enviro Wipes was acquired for an undisclosed sum by Lindström, which specialises in areas such as textile wiper services and workwear solutions.

Founded in 1992, Enviro Wipes provides, collects, launders and delivers multi-use cotton wipes across the UK and Ireland. The business’ activities also include selling a range of products, such as soap, gloves, protective creams and storage bins.

Enviro Wipes had a turnover of £3.1m during the last full financial year and has approximately 1,500 customers.

Eviro Wipes’ operations will remain unchanged following the sale, with all the about 40 staff being retained by the new owner.

Directors George Parker, Alan Green and Phil Walker, who, with their wives, previously owned the company, will exit the business, with finance director Mr Walker remaining in post during the next few months to help with the transition.

Mr. Parker said: “Our company remains successful, but we’ve now reached a stage in its growth when we need to make significant changes, to ensure it has the best possible future.

“In Lindström, we’re confident we’ve found the ideal buyer. They’re a large, very successful, family-owned company, which is a leading player in the European textile rental market. The organisation has very high standards in areas such as safety, hygiene and sustainability and an outstanding reputation for delivering customer satisfaction.

“We have every confidence in the new owners and firmly believe they’ll provide our employees with security, opportunities to take on more responsibility, and chances to develop their careers for years to come. As they implement their plans to develop the business at an accelerated rate, we believe they’ll expand the workforce too.”

The acquisition marks Lindström’s entry into the UK textile wiper services market.

Lindström’s other British site in Bedford, opened in 2001, employs around 35 people. The bedford site will continue to deliver, maintain and sustainably dispose workwear, so there will be no overlap with the Bradford operation. Over 25,000 people in the UK now wear Lindström workwear daily.

Soresh Meeda, managing director if Lindström UK, said: “Joining forces with Enviro Wipes provides a great opportunity for us to start with a totally new service in the market.

“Our new partner has a solid foundation, great products and fantastic customers, including in the printing and packaging, automotive, manufacturing and maintenance sectors.

“Enviro Wipes offers customers many benefits, including employee protection, waste footprint minimisation - through reduced use of disposable wipers - time and money savings, and the ability to focus on core operations.”

He added: “By utilising the best ways of working from Enviro Wipes and ourselves, we believe we can really develop our operations in this market and grow, while offering even better, safer, more innovative, value-for-money services to customers in existing and new sectors.”

Corporate Finance advice on the deal was provided to Enviro Wipes by The Camlee Group, based in Sale, Greater Manchester, while Gordons LLP supplied its legal advice.

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