Uwe Wolfinger, Linde’s head of external communications, corporate communications, confirmed that the reason behind the decision is that Fred Butler’s environmentally friendly cleaning service was not accepted as well as the company hoped it would be.

He said there were ten outlets at the time of the closure in September. Four shops in Munich and three shops in Rosenheim had been sold to a textile cleaning company and employees of the respective stores would transfer with their shops. A buyer is still being sought for the three shops in Frankfurt.

The Fred Butler operation in Sweden closed in 2009.