“That is a real landmark.

“The business is concentrating on what it does well, which is very high-quality table linen and chefs’ wear. We’re very optimistic about the future.”

Stalbridge’s sister company, Johnsons Apparelmaster is based in Preston and supplies overalls and workwear to the engineering, manufacturing and food and drink sectors. It saw revenues and profits rise last year.

Market-leading Johnson Cleaners, based in Prescot, has taken a hit from declining retail spending in the recession.

Throughout 2008 it blamed the smoking ban for falling revenues, saying customers needed their clothes cleaned less regularly. But now the ban has been in place for almost two years, Talbot says it is “history” and says the business has moved on.

“We were trading well last year until October when we did feel the impact of the wider worries on the high street,” said Talbot. “But that picked up at the start of this year and we’re very positive about the business.”

Johnson Cleaners is also hoping to win customers through its new Green Earth technology, which uses liquid silicone instead of the traditional and less environmentally-friendly “perc” fluid to clean clothes.

Half of the company’s 520 stores now have Green Earth machines in place, and more will be rolled out this year. Johnson has also refurbished 25 of its stores with Green Earth branding, including one in Sealand Road, Chester, that opened last month.

Johnson is also looking to move underperforming shops to better locations, often moving them to supermarket or drive-through sites.

“The economy has been creating problems but the company hasn’t been sitting still,” said Talbot.

“The area where there seems to be increasing opportunity for us is doing home laundry through shops, with people bringing in bags of washing and us returning it folded or ironed.”

In 2006 Johnson Cleaners was put up for sale but today Talbot says it is an integral part of the group.

“Under previous management the group was looking at selling various divisions, including dry cleaning,” he said. “Those are not for sale now. We see dry cleaning as being very much core for us.”

Johnson’s facilities management business SGP works with a quarter of the UK’s large high street chains. It offers 24-hour support maintenance and repair services to customers including KFC, Carphone Warehouse and Pizza Hut.

“We have been winning quite a lot of business in that division in the past year because people have been coming to us as a way of saving costs,” said Talbot.

Johnson left its historic headquarters in Mildmay Road, Bootle, in 2007 to move to a new headquarters in London. When Talbot arrived, however, he decided to return Johnson nearer its roots and moved the head office to Preston Brook, near Runcorn.

“It didn’t seem the right thing to have a London head office when we’re a predominantly North West business.”

Today, Talbot remains a special adviser at Talbot Hughes McKillop, which was bought by Kroll in 2005 but was the subject of a management buyout last year.

Talbot has become a student of iron age history, particularly of the East Anglian Iceni tribe, and says he would one day like to write a book on the prehistory of the region.

His role as chairman of the board of governors at English National Ballet sees him promote the company’s work, both nationally and internationally, and help build relationships with the business world.

Talbot may be evenly-spoken, but he is fiercely proud of Johnson. One LDP Business reporter tells how, when he reported the comments of one analyst that the company was a “basket case”, Talbot phoned him up and insisted on a meeting to tell him how well the company was in fact doing.

At the end of last year, Johnson’s debt was down to £78.5m, leaving the group comfortably within its bank facility of £107.5m. In its AGM statement this month, Talbot told the market he was “confident in achieving a satisfactory result for the full year 2009”.

The recession is hitting Johnson as it is hitting every business, but Talbot believes the restructured group is now well-placed to ride it out.

“In the present environment you don’t feel like being too smug about anything,” he said.

“All things considered we feel pretty confident about the business.”

English National Ballet’s production of Giselle will be performed at Liverpool Empire from October 28- November 1. For more information visit www.ballet.org.uk