A SOUTH Lakeland company is aiming to clean up in its market place after carrying out a major expansion of its operation that will create a number of new jobs.

Work is nearing completion on a major 6,000 sq ft extension at Sunlight Service Group's laundry premises on Shap Road, Kendal.

The investment, which is worth around £750,000, will increase the company's production capacity by some 30 per cent and generate an extra ten jobs initially, and possibly twice that number in the longer term.

Regional director Paul Borrowdale told Business Gazette that the investment represented a major vote of confidence by the company in the long-term future of the Kendal laundry.

He said Sunlight could have made the investment in other laundries in the region, such as Lancaster, but the company had chosen the Kendal site because it served the hotel and guesthouse market in the Lake District, which was an important part of the business.

Sunlight serves the linen needs of around 1,000 accommodation providers across Cumbria, ranging from large hotels to small guesthouses.

The new extension, built by local contractor Lowther and Dawson, will enable Sunlight to offer extra laundry services to restaurants and top-of-the-range hotels as well as increasing its bespoke linen rental work.

Building work on the extension has taken around six weeks to complete and the company hopes to get the new operation up and running by the end of January, with an official opening pencilled in for the following month.

Graham Jackson, senior sales executive for Sunlight's linen services division, said the company had been very successful in developing a niche market for linen contracts, and the investment in new plant offered the chance to take advantage of greater automation in production work.

Up to 120 people currently work at the Kendal laundry, which was formerly Lakeland Pennine before it became part of the Sunlight Group one of the largest of its kind in the country - some ten years ago.