The 45 staff were offered work in Norwich or Fakenham, but Sunlight expects all to take redundancy. The closure was confirmed in January, and the company said work would cease at the site by 10 February.

Individual employees were told of dates and were due to leave at different times according to their length of service or role.

The laundry provided a linen service to hotels and was one of five bought from the Co-op in 2003.

Sunlight Service Group human resources director Martin Roberts said that the Gorleston business had been loss-making since it was purchased by the group three years ago. After acquiring a laundry at Fakenham in December, Sunlight decided the work done at Gorleston could be switched there.