Family-owned AmeriPride celebrates milestone 125th year

Minnetonka-based AmeriPride, one of North America's largest uniform rental and linen supply companies, has 115 production branches and service centers, a fleet of 1,800 vehicles, many of them those seemingly ubiquitous green and white trucks, 5,700 employees, including 750 in Minnesota, and more than 150,000 customers.

The number that the fourth-generation, family-owned company is focusing on this year, however, is 125, as it celebrates the 125th anniversary of its 1889 founding in Lincoln, Neb., by brothers George and Frank Steiner.

The Steiners, who got their start delivering towels from handcarts before upgrading to horse-drawn wagons, opened a St. Paul branch before Frank moved permanently to Minneapolis and George to Salt Lake City. The two never lived in the same city again.

Today, AmeriPride, known as American Linen Supply before rebranding in 2000, operates a flagship branch in Minneapolis near Hwy. 280 and plants in Hibbing, Duluth, Mankato and St. Cloud in Minnesota and Fargo and Bismarck in North Dakota, in addition to its corporate headquarters in Minnetonka. In Canada, where the company is the largest uniform rental and linen supply provider, it's known as Canadian Linen and Uniform Service and Quebec Linge.

For all the pride the company takes in its "legacy of service," as it has billed this year's local and corporate celebrations of its 125th anniversary, AmeriPride is hardly living in the past.

Digital innovations such as a Web store, online account management portals and e-stores, where employees of specific companies can place orders, are key elements of a new business strategy ushered in under CEO Bill Evans who joined the company in 2009. The former PepsiAmericas executive became AmeriPride's first CEO who was not a family member.

Taking over a company that had been growing at a slower pace than major competitors and losing market share to them, Evans launched a five-year turnaround plan in 2011. An early step was to centralize back office functions, which the company's far-flung locations had handled separately, to improve efficiency and allow local operations to focus on customers.

"The cornerstone of the strategy is that we're a service provider," Evans said. "What we really do is sell service. That was a big cultural change. Not that this wasn't a service organization, but today we have better processes behind the service … more standardization to provide superior service.

In 2012, Evans persuaded AmeriPride's board of directors to lower the company's profit targets. His idea was to invest more in sales resources, including increasing the sales force by a third over two years. The move has helped accelerate U.S. growth and increase market share here, Evans said. Canadian operations, meanwhile, are working to defend their turf as they encounter more competition.

The company also has benefited from the oil and gas industry in North Dakota, western Texas and western Canada, where flame-resistant work gear is in growing demand, Evans said. AmeriPride has expanded its Bismarck office several times to serve the booming Williston area. Growth in the energy sector adds to the company's traditional strength in hospitality, automotive, health care and industrial uniforms, and safety apparel.

Leading AmeriPride's growth through digital and other service innovations is Andrew Steiner, vice president of marketing and customer operations and a fourth-generation family member and an owner in the company.

Steiner identified an opportunity to use technology to make doing business with AmeriPride easier, and the company invested heavily to develop its new Web store, which debuted in June and offers online transactions and direct sales.

"Our strategy is to be the leaders in customer service, with better technology and better information about customers that will help us attract a high-quality workforce," Steiner said.

The company also has invested in technology that coaches drivers to operate safely and efficiently, Steiner said. And it has begun testing alternative-fuel vehicles, including ones that run on liquid propane gas and compressed natural gas. It will use only electric vehicles later this year in Los Angeles.

Steiner, who worked at another business for a couple of years after college before joining AmeriPride, said he's one of about 25 direct owners of the firm. Annual meetings bring the owners, their spouses and children — some 60 family members — together.

"As the company has grown and the family has grown, ownership has been more spread out," Steiner said. "It's really important for us to stick together. It's not only important for good governance of the business, it keeps the shareholders on the same page and provides a renewed spirit and energy."

Todd Nelson is a freelance writer in Woodbury. He can be reached at todd_nelson@mac.com.