Former JB Hi-Fi chief executive and now Byron Bay local Richard Uechtritz has helped wrangle $12 million to open the only commercial laundry in Byron Shire, which will provide jobs for people locked out of mainstream employment.

Beacon Laundry in Bangalow, 15 kilometres west of Byron Bay, will start operating in late January and has hired its first 40 workers – people experiencing mental illness or homelessness, or long-term unemployed youth.