(Reuters) - Johnson Service Group Plc, which rents and dry cleans uniforms and other textiles, said it would close 109 dry cleaning branches in the first half of this year and take a charge of about 6.5 million pounds.
The company said its dry cleaning business continued to operate in a difficult high street environment, and despite several initiatives it was unable to maintain the like-for-like sales growth of 2013.
"Whilst the dry cleaning news is likely to get a disproportionate amount of attention, this looks like the right move to ensure higher margins in the medium term," Investec analyst Andrew Gibb said in a note to clients.
However, the British company said it expected results for the year ended Dec. 31 to be slightly ahead of expectations, helped by its acquisition of hotel-linen cleaning service provider Bourne Services Group Ltd in early 2014.
Analysts on average expect a full-year pretax profit at 19.60 million pounds on revenue of 210.16 million pounds, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
(Reporting by Soumithri Mamidipudi in Bengaluru; Editing by Anand Basu)