A long established laundry business in Bourne has been running for more than 70 years and despite changes, including a relocation and expansion, Bourne Textile Services remains the workplace for generations of families from the town.

Foreign workers, a multi-million pound move and strict environmental regulations are some of most recent developments. But while much may have changed since John Norman and Ernest Stroud established the laundry business 76 years ago, there is still a lot they would recognise at Bourne Textile Services today and a glance at the firm's pay role is likely to reveal at least a few names they would find familiar. Not only is a member of the Stroud family still involved, Hedley Stroud as chairman, but generations of Bourne families have worked for the firm and many employees are approaching their 30th, 40th or even 50th anniversaries at the company.

Managing director David Johnson is one of them, having been there for 46 years and one of many in the past to have got a foot through the door via Bourne Cricket Club. “There was an unwritten rule that if you played cricket for the town you got a job," explained David who has had various roles at the company and has most recently overseen the firm's move from Manning Road to Cherryholt Road.

Plans for the move began a decade ago and the final piece of the jigsaw was the opening of the new dry cleaning centre in the spring. But today, dry cleaning is a minor part of a business that sees a turn around of thousands of sheets, table cloths and pillow cases for hotels and venues as far away as north London, Hull and throughout the Midlands.

When John Norman and Ernest Stroud launched the business in 1932, the company was built on dry cleaning for individual customers, such as locally based airmen with uniforms that needed attention. The basic process has not changed greatly since then and is similar to what anyone would use at home, washing, drying, ironing, only on a much vaster scale.

The washing machines, each the size of a double decker bus, handle 85 kilos of washing in three minutes (compare that with the six to seven-litre load of most domestic washers) and the firm's most recent washing system cost a cool £750,000. But if you are catering for 20,000 hotel rooms and regularly turn around one million pieces of laundry, then the quality of the equipment is vital, as is a water source and, just as at Manning Road, a well was sunk at the site to extract water.

"We use 450,000 gallons of water a day," says David. “It may sound a lot but today's machines use only a fraction of what was once needed and it's one area where advances in technology have brought massive improvements in efficiency. Our detergent supplier has stopped using phosphates and we now use far less water. When we started, we used three and a half gallons per pound of water. Now we use less than five litres per kilo.”

A tricky conversion from imperial to metric reveals that each load for washing uses roughly a sixth of that previously required and it is helped by recycling steam created by the laundry process back into water to be reused. Alongside the reduction in water use, the firm aims for a three per cent reduction in energy. All of its vehicles, many bearing laundry-themed names such as Bubbles and Fluffy, are low emission and routes are computer tracked for maximum efficiency.

Having up to date transport benefits the firm and the environment, says Tony Dewey, who runs the transport division. "Very soon, all our lorries will be less than five years old."

Tony joined Bourne Textile Services in 1978 and is one of many who have a long association with the firm. "It is still regarded as a family", he said and as we tour the site, David points out many of the 280 employees who have several family members among their work colleagues.

Bev Stubley, who is employed on one of the ironing presses, has been there for 30 years "My sister works here and my aunt used to”, she said. “It's quite a family and the years have flown by although conditions have changed considerably. When I arrived, we were counting napkins manually."

That role is now history. Folding, sorting and counting are almost entirely automatic. But while technology has made work easier over the decades, perhaps the biggest change for the business was the big move to Cherryholt Road in February 2006. New premises doubled the laundry's capacity and allowed a 24 hour, seven day a week process and for the first time, a recruitment drive was launched which resulted in many people new to Bourne being taken on.

But while a large number of Poles and Lithuanians have joined the staff, very quickly the family ethos has been passed onto the new workers so that as well as Bourne families encouraging family members to join, the new wave of workers has done likewise. "Without people you do not have a business and I think as a company we tend to look after employees”, said David. “But the last ten years have become more difficult because of the competition for labour.”

But he does not believe that the emphasis on local employment has been lost and, remembering the love the founders had for sport, he added: "We are still sponsors of the cricket club."

Reproduced from The Local newspaper Friday 5th September 2008.

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