 Persil Service was taken over by Timpson Ltd in May 2008 and all stores are now listed as "Timpson Ltd" branches, with gradual refits across the line bringing storefronts into the Timpson style.Persil Service began as a subsidiary of Unilever Ventures, part of Unilever, who hold a licence to use the Persil brand.It was initially trialed within eight Sainsbury's stores in Central London in 2002 and after a successful 12-month pilot scheme was implemented within another 34 stores in 2004.