Industrial Launderers

According to U.S. government statistics, the number of industrial laundering businesses fell from 1,613 businesses in 1997 to an estimated 1,488 in 2002. By 2010 there were 1,083 establishments engaged in industrial laundering, according to Dun & Bradstreet's Marketing Solutions. Revenues, on the other hand, continued to rise, from $5 billion in 1997 to $6.1 billion in 2002 and $6.3 billion in 2009. Industry employment totaled 43,571 in 2009, down from 84,271 workers in 2002. Although many firms in the industry were small-scale operations, the majority employed 10 or more workers. Not surprisingly, industrial laundering businesses were most prevalent in densely populated states. In 2010 California had the most, with 120 firms employing a total of 5,489 workers; New York was second with 81 establishments and 2,672 workers, followed by Texas with 69 businesses employing 2,254 workers in the industry.

In 2010, the foremost industrial laundering company in the United States was the Cintas Corporation of Cincinnati, Ohio. The company had $3.5 billion in sales and employed a workforce of about 30,000 in 2009. Cintas had 420 locations and approximately 800,000 clients in the early 2010s. Some 5 million uniformed employees wore apparel serviced by Cintas. Another prominent industrial launderer was ARAMARK Corp. of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which had 255,00 employees and sales of $12.2 billion in 2009. Other industry leaders included G&K Services Inc. of Minnetonka, Minnesota, with 7,500 employees and sales of $833.6 million, and UniFirst Corporation of Wilmington, Massachusetts, with 10,000 employees and more than $1.0 billion in revenues.