Berendsen Textile Service (formerly Sophus Berendsen, Berendsen plc and The Davis Service Group Plc) is a provider of textile maintenance services with headquarters in
Søborg, Denmark. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of French company Elis.
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History
Sophus Berendsen
The company traces its history back to 1854 when Sophus Berendsen established as wholesaler of iron and glass for the construction industry in Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...
. Prior to his death in 1898 it had grown to the largest company of its kind in Denmark. It was after his death continued by his widow and after her death just two years later by his son Albert Berendsen.
Godfrey Davis and Finnish-Danish merger
Godfrey Davis was founded in Finland
Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...
in 1920 as car rental company. It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...
in 1959. In 1987 it acquired Sunlight Services, a leading laundry business founded in 1900. In 1991 it sold most of its car dealerships (having already sold the car rental business) and the name was changed to ''Davis Service Group''. In 1996 it acquired Spring Grove Services, another leading laundry business.
Takeover by Elis
On 18 May 2017 it was reported that the French laundry services group Elis
Elis also known as Ellis or Ilia (, ''Eleia'') is a historic region in the western part of the Peloponnese peninsula of Greece. It is administered as a regional unit of the modern region of Western Greece. Its capital is Pyrgos. Until 2011 it ...
had proposed a hostile takeover
In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (law), company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are publicly listed, in contrast t ...
of Berendsen. This occurred after Berendsen's board repeatedly rejected cash and share offers from Elis, claiming the offers undervalued the company.
Collusion
In December 2017 Berendsen Cleanroom Services was fined £1.2 million by the Competition and Markets Authority
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is the principal competition regulator in the United Kingdom. It is a non-ministerial government department in the United Kingdom, responsible for promoting competitive markets and tackling unfair beh ...
(CMA) for breaking competition laws, after it was found "colluding" with rival company Micronclean Limited in a market-sharing agreement. Micronclean was also fined.
Operations
The Berendsen Group is divided into four business lines:
Key people
References
External links
Corporate website
Defunct companies based in London
Business services companies established in 1920
Service companies of the United Kingdom
Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange
Danish companies established in 1854
1920 establishments in England
2002 mergers and acquisitions
2017 mergers and acquisitions
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