Long-established Bath business Regency Laundry, which has provided fresh linen to some of the area’s top hotels for more than 140 years, is to leave the city after outgrowing its current site.
The firm is to relocate to Corsham, where it has signed a deal to take over three buildings on an industrial estate.
The move will create additional jobs at the firm, which expects to increase its 80-strong workforce by 20% by the end of the year.
However, it will also re-ignite concerns that expanding Bath firms are being forced to leave the city due to a severe lack of suitable business accommodation.
Established in 1879, Regency Laundry provides a high-quality laundry and dry cleaning service to households and businesses in Bath, Swindon, Gloucester and the surrounding area, including some of the region’s most prestigious hotels.
It changed hands in a management buy-in four years ago which transferred ownership of the business from its shareholders – who had not been involved in the day-to-day running of the firm – to Julian Carr and Stuart Calder, who had interests in other laundry businesses.
Managing director Stuart Calder said its site on Lower Bristol Road, which it has occupied since the business started, was not suitable for its expansion plans.
Developers now plan to build an innovative co-living scheme on the site with 155 studio apartments with shared amenities.
Mr Calder said the business needed modern, flexible space from which to service its expanding client base.
It worked with Bath property firm HPH, which last year bought the vacant laundry unit on Corsham’s Leafield Industrial Estate and will now lease it to Regency Laundry.
As part of the deal, HPH is providing investment in the buildings and assisting Regency Laundry with facility management advice.
Mr Calder said: “As part of our development plans, to allow us to grow the business, we need more space. This is something our current laundry in Bath simply cannot accommodate.
“Thankfully, our deal with HPH has given us the opportunity to invest in class-leading technologies and further advance the quality of service Regency Laundry offers.”
HPH managing director Lindsay Holdoway added: “Bath has long suffered a shortage of industrial space owing to its relatively poor road infrastructure, limited housing stock and resulting high industrial rents.
“Leafield Industrial Estate is able to provide a suitable alternative near Bath with the added benefits of room for expansion, good transport links and lower overheads.
“This was a particularly challenging transaction during the pandemic as it involved the relocation of the existing business, acquisition of the freehold with a simultaneous lease agreement with Regency Laundry, followed by repairs and improvements to assist after the move.”
Mr Holdoway’s comments about the lack of industrial space in Bath are echoed in South West property agency Alder King’s latest Market Monitor report.
It says that while demand for good quality space remained strong in Bath with a number of active requirements, supply was extremely tight and remained restricted to second hand stock.
“With no speculative development expected, occupiers are forced to look outside the city, towards east Bristol or around Chippenham,” it adds.
Regency Laundry signed a 15-year deal with a five-year break clause for 20,000 sq ft of space in three buildings.
