No figures were disclosed. Cavendish, a London-based corporate finance adviser, handled the deal.

JLA has 340 employees and is based in Ripponden, Yorkshire, with offices in Scotland and Ireland. It designs, installs, maintains and repairs laundry equipment and customers include care homes, hospital trusts, hotels, housing schemes, military bases and prisons across the UK. The company introduced the Otex ozone-based laundry system in 2004 and more recently launched an energy intelligence product to reduce consumption costs in heating systems by up to 30%

John Laithwaite founded the business in 1973 and is understood to be keeping an interest in the company. He was unavailable for comment today. A spokesman confirmed that the sale had gone through but would not comment further.

Established in 2000, HgCapital is a leading investor in the European private equity market with funds under management of £2.4billion.

In a statement, Matthew Rourke, partner and head of the business services team at HgCapital said: “JLA is a market leading business with significant growth opportunities and we are delighted to support the company in the next stage of its development.”