AT AMERIPRIDE, CLEAN IS IN THE DETAILS : Our Heritage

OVER A CENTURY AGO ... It was 1889 when George A. Steiner worked his way through high school delivering towels for a local laundry in Lincoln, Nebraska. Driven by his young, entrepreneurial spirit and foresight, he purchased the business for $50.80 - half down, half later.
American Linen Exchange Co Photo     

He called the business American Linen Supply and formed a partnership with his brother Frank. Together they made deliveries from a green and white hand cart they pushed through the city streets. But it wasn't long before the hand cart was upgraded to a horse-drawn wagon and they moved to separate cities to open new branches in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Salt Lake City, Utah. The two brothers would never live in the same town again.

The brothers spent much of their lives moving across the country, opening branches and tending to the business. Sustaining a business for more than a century hasn’t been easy and there were many difficult times throughout their history. In fact, there was a time that Frank had to pawn a family heirloom gold watch just to pay the bills and keep the business in Minneapolis going.

The company expanded into Canada in 1925 with the opening of the Vancouver, British Columbia branch and opened many other facilities across the U.S. and Canada in subsequent years. Recognizing a need to incorporate the branches, they consolidated the 19 existing branches into one integrated corporation in 1948. The company later reorganized and split into two separate entities (American Linen Supply headquartered in Minneapolis and Steiner American Corporation in Salt Lake City) in 1959.

In 2000, the American Linen Supply adopted the AmeriPride name for all its U.S. locations and in 2009, Bill Evans was appointed as first non-family CEO. Through it all, the company’s commitment to the customer, personalized service, innovation and automation has sustained it for more than 120 years.

STILL FAMILY OWNED

Our privately-held company is still owned and managed by the Steiner family. There are five family members on the Board of Directors and two family members actively involved in the daily operations of the business.

Being family owned differentiates AmeriPride from its large, corporate competitors. While they are beholden to Wall Street, AmeriPride continues to do what is best for our customers. The core family values that the company was built on are still guiding the company today. In fact, AmeriPride was recently awarded the Twin Cities Business 2011 Minnesota Family Business Award as the top company in the ‘Legacy’ category.