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From the day it was formed, J. Lyons had
an on-going need to launder linen;
tablecloths, napkins and teacloths. Quite
how this operation was performed is not
known other than it must have been carried
out away from the main business. It is
known that Lyons had started to use the
firm of James Hayes from as early as 1900
to supplement its own laundry operation at
Pimlico, London which was known as the
Belgrave Laundry. As the Lyons business
expanded (restaurants, hotels and
teashops) James Hayes undertook a growing
amount of work from Lyons so that by the
early 1920s it required a large capital
injection to invest in more automated
plant. Lyons offered that investment by
taking a stake in the business and by 1926
had required all the equity. As well as
providing laundering services to Lyons,
and other companies, James Hayes expanded
his family laundry service helped by his
new ironing machines from America. Their
'Ful£worth' (full pounds worth)
service became so popular that new depots
had to open. At the outbreak of war in
1939 there was a tenfold decrease in
commecial and domestic laundry work. This,
however, was compensated for by the
additional work generated by the War
Office and other government departments.
After the war James Hayes introduced a
linen hire service which began in earnest
in 1962. Its expansion was so fast that it
soon accounted for 50 per cent of the
James Hayes business. This was followed in
the 1970s with a complete range of
workwear garments from their garment hire
service. Manufactured from Terylene and
cotton the garments were claimed to
represent a breakthrough in the design and
processing technique of industrial
apparel. James Hayes was sold to Johnson
Group Cleaners in 1979, when Lyons were
bought by Allied Breweries. At its height
it was the largest laundry in
Europe.
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