Fortitude Fund makes its first investment with the acquisition of Richard Jay

Nick Miller

Fortitude Investment Partners (“Fortitude”) has made the first investment from its flagship Fortitude Fund, acquiring Richard Jay, Australia’s leading provider of professional laundry equipment, industrial laundry solutions and cleaning chemicals.

The Fortitude Fund completed its first close in December 2025, securing commitments from several institutional and family office investors across Australia and Asia. The firm is on track to complete a final close by mid 2026.

In addition, investors in Fortitude’s wealth strategy, the Fortitude Small Cap PE Fund, will gain exposure to Richard Jay through its allocation to the Fortitude Fund, broadening access to the transaction across the firm’s investor base.

The Richard Jay acquisition marks the Fortitude Team’s 20th investment in private businesses and continues the firm’s focus on backing resilient businesses.

The deal was led by Sam O’Connor, Partner at Fortitude. Nick Miller, Co-Founder of Fortitude and Mr O’Connor will join the company board.

Fortitude adopts a long term, partnership driven investment approach, targeting established lower mid-market businesses with resilient earnings, recurring revenue profiles and opportunities for operational and strategic growth.

Mr Miller said the transaction reflects the firm’s strategy of investing in essential service providers with strong recurring revenues and clear growth pathways.

“This is exactly the kind of stable, mission critical business services platform we like, one that offers strong customer outcomes with clear levers to grow. We like Richard Jay’s defensive exposure to essential sectors including hospitals, aged care, hospitality, government services such as prisons as well as accommodation, facilities management and food and beverage,” he said.

Founded in 1969 as a single laundromat in Adelaide, Richard Jay has grown into an internationally recognised provider of commercial laundry, chemicals and dispensing solutions. The family-owned company services customers across hospitality, healthcare, government, education, mining and community sectors, and operates through its core brands, Richard Jay, JayChem and Symbio.

“Richard Jay has built a trusted services platform over decades. We’re investing to scale that foundation and broadening its national coverage. We are backing the existing management team to continue delivering high quality service and product support to the industrial laundry and hygiene industries,” Mr O’Connor said.

“After more than 55 years of family ownership, we are pleased to announce the sale of our group of companies. The acquisition will bring additional expertise and investment, which together with the dedication and efforts of our team, the high-quality solutions we offer, and the strong foundations we have built over multiple generations, will ensure that the Richard Jay group is able to expand on its ability to assist our customers and our communities,” added Carolyn Kirk as spokesperson for Richard Jay.

The existing Richard Jay leadership team, Matthew Manterfield (CEO) and Ian Elliot (General Manager, Chemicals), will continue to lead the business and have partnered with Fortitude to assist in the further growth of the business.

CEO, Matthew Manterfield said “We are delighted to have an aligned partner like Fortitude alongside us as we pursue a dynamic growth plan across our key products and services. At this same time, we acknowledge the Richard Jay family and their support in building Richard Jay to become Australia’s only fully integrated, nationwide provider of commercial laundry and chemical solutions to essential services sectors.”

Richard Jay maintains a strong focus on ESG initiatives, including improving resource efficiency for customers through reduced energy and water usage, extending the useful life of linens, enhancing hygiene and infection control standards in sensitive environments such as hospitals and aged care facilities, and strengthening product and employee safety and compliance.

Talbot Sayer, GreenMount, BDO, Dealside, Cyber Partners and Willis Towers Watson advised Fortitude, and Monash Advisory, MYMAX and Clayton Utz advised Richard Jay.