We’ve visited many family businesses in our never- ending tour of the UK’s laundries, but it has to be said that virtually as soon as we were through the doors of Dash Linen and its sister company Just 4 Linen, it felt like popping into a friend’s home for a cup of tea and a gossip.

Ed Syed, busy at work

The reality of course is that it’s a busy working laundry and a stunning linen hire operation in South West London, but it is the little touches which are a hallmark of their success. We see the attention to detail in every corner of the laundry shop floor, and how modern technology, data capture and equipment supports the daily operation and forward-planning.

But it’s that human touch which captures most attention. While director Edward Syed is taking us through how monitoring every process in the laundry is giving them more control and explaining how overhead probes greatly reduce fire risks, Dash Linen’s founder, his father Ash, appears – not to give professional input, but he’s noticed something which he’d like sorted.

Ash Syed, originally from Pakistan, set up Dash Linen some 30 years ago after owning a successful Italian restaurant in nearby Richmond. An entrepreneur, he could see a gap in the market for a laundry providing utmost care and high-quality linen for the best restaurants and top end events in the London area.

Syed senior’s exceptional eye for detail on the occasion of our visit is that he’s noted that although I’ve been served with an excellent cup of tea, balancing that and my notebook is something of a task. While I’m looking at computer screens displaying operational data, he performs a maître d’ magic act and a dinky round table complete with decorated tablecloth appears at my side – the tea is now safe, and he quietly acknowledges that ‘madame’ is delighted.

When Ash glides away, Edward and I share a happy chuckle because his dad’s little ‘just passing by’ intervention epitomises how the business has moved forward while retaining that very personal approach. Edward has been running things for 10 years now – he joined the business to help out when Ash was taken seriously ill, originally planned as a temporary measure before attending university. But family and the inexplicable lure of this laundry operation… he never left and has no regrets.

“I don’t think Dad would have been able to fathom how the two businesses would have grown when he first started. He’s never rested on his laurels, and I am also ambitious as to where we can take the business while not losing what we are all about and making sure that everything we do is done properly and honestly, as reputation amongst suppliers, customers and peers is extremely important to us.”

Father and son have found a ‘meet in the middle’ way to manage their professional and personal lives. They have different management styles, but the ‘workaholic’ approach is perhaps something inherited.

Edward reveals: “Dad still very much turns up every day although now I have made him do things like take my son to football on Saturday mornings, so he no longer comes in six days a week or is there all hours of the day.

“But during our new boiler install last weekend, which is project managed by Autoflame, and installed by Atlas Boilers, he was there at 5am Saturday until 5pm, and then Sunday 10am to 5pm! But I also have him take my eldest to kung fu class on Wednesdays and swimming on Fridays and he never misses a session.

“I give credit to Javier Maqueda, our operations manager, for making myself and possibly dad not feel guilty if we’re not onsite when the factory is working. Before my kids arrived, I was thinking I had to be there every hour of every day, so all credit to Javier for building a management team that keeps the show going.”

Tea over, we head to the laundry and it’s clear just how important providing immaculate bespoke products for high status clients is for all the staff. We meet Bibi – this month marks her 30 years with Dash Linen – and two other ladies carefully scrutinising and then folding linen arriving at their ironer station.

They are working at a very decent pace, which comes with experience, but are not racing. “We automate where we can, but we’re not prepared to lose that edge,” says Edward. “Yes, services like hand folding are labour intensive and we’re sometimes dealing with small batches, but this is about providing a quality service. Bibi and the team are watching like hawks – if any linen is marked or damaged they will spot it, which is great because we know our customers would!”

Just round a corner we find the domain of Gowri, the ‘personal jacket controller’, who that day was working on the tunnel finisher. An assistant is quietly polite, but I can tell she’s hoping I don’t start picking up and fiddling with the precious garments she’s intent on providing with the ultimate finish.

So instead, I peek at the names lavishly embroidered on the chefwear she’s caring for. We are talking about some prestigious clients – not just the award-winning restaurants but the executive chefs we see on TV pontificating over the efforts of those who’d love to follow in their footsteps. There’s RFID (where Dash Linen’s interest is mainly built around linen lifespan, knowing ‘this item belongs to this person’ and ensuring a failing chip doesn’t leave a customer short of stock). The laundry equipment is something of a mish-mash of recognisable industry names such as Vega, Weston and Primus, chosen for lifespan and reliability, but mostly for meeting Dash Linen’s exacting standards.

We talk about bespoke items, exquisitely embroidered napkins and the dangers of apron strings tangling and causing a jam, but my horrified attention is caught by cages of incoming laundry, just unloaded by Jimmy, a driver whose been there from the start of the business and ‘knows London like the back of his hand’. Now in the laundry entrance are cages including a couple full of what is best described as ‘manky’, clearly having been used to mop up food spillages and the likes of no doubt expensive red wine.

Edward Syed is reassuring, pointing out a thin red line running through each of these items – it signifies a different use for what was once pristine table linen: “We do repairs onsite where possible, but some damaged linen, like what’s in that cage, has been converted into kitchen cloths to at least extend the lifespan.

“I hate doing it, but sometimes we have to talk to clients and explain they really shouldn’t be using expensive napkins as polishing cloths. It’s just a lack of communication which can be solved. The technology can identify if there’s an issue with a particular establishment.”

They source linen from a variety of suppliers. Tonrose is clearly a favourite for white items, and there’s an interesting story about how Richard Yates of Vision Linens broke news that a range of very high gsm cotton napkins was sadly going to cease production.

They were a favourite of Dash Linen and a deal was done whereby Dash would take enough 240gsm napkins to fill a container and keep production going.

The new boiler is not the only sign of changing times at Dash Linen. Work is being completed on an Aquatherm system which will see heat transferred from wastewater to be added to fresh water supply. By the time you read this it should be up and running and starting to cut the business’s gas bills.

We head off to Just 4 Linen, which turns out to be a feast for the eyes. The immaculate premises are run by Edward’s sister Sophia and husband Satty Birk (Sophia’s mother was the leading light here but has happily taken more of a backseat role than her busy husband, Ash).

Top quality linen of every colour under the sun is stored and offered from here, from gentle pastels to jewel-like stunners, in a huge range of shapes and sizes. From prestigious events like Royal Ascot to the BAFTAS (plus our own LADAS awards!) to society weddings, those who want the best dressed tables will find it at Just 4 Linen.

They stock over 100 solid and patterned colours, curated to facilitate all types of seasons and themes. But this is not just a story of gorgeous linen and gala events. The Syed family could have lost everything because the plush new premises opened just a couple of weeks before the pandemic struck. All the events they were planning to provide linen for were cancelled and, of course, the fancy restaurants and hotels served by Dash Linen’s laundry shut down.

They lost staff as well, a heartbreaker for a business where everyone is part of the family. The TSA highlighted at the time how lack of government support was damaging Dash Linen and similar small operations, with Edward Syed at the time: “We’ve been watching our business crumble before our eyes.”

It’s a different tale today because they somehow survived and are looking towards a brighter future. But some things will not change and sum up the magic of Dash Linen and Just 4 Linen. Edward Syed says: “At the beginning of this week dad asked me ‘Will we save any money from this new boiler? I jokingly replied: ‘I hope so’, to which he laughed. It will do, of course, and I think that sums up where we are right now.

“Dad trusting me to spend £300k of the company’s money on projects and not asking any questions until afterwards. It took a while to get to this point, and we have both threatened to walk away over the years (I didn’t believe his threats obviously) but we are in a good place now!”

Just 4 Linen and it’s immaculate premises are run by Edward’s sister Sophia and husband Satty Birk

Dash Linen vans can be seen across London and the South East

Just 4 Linen offers over 100 colours of top quality linen fit for the most prestigious of weddings and events, including the BAFTAS and the LADAs