Cintas

At Cintas, we’re dedicated to helping businesses across North America stay clean, prepared and looking professional. Through our innovative solutions and routine service visits, we take care of the important tasks that help our customers keep their workplaces running smoothly — so they have more time to focus on their business.

Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, our Fortune 500 company serves more than one million businesses in all types of industries. Our diverse customer base ranges from small manufacturing companies to mid-sized hotel chains to major corporations with thousands of employees, and we’re known for providing them with a seemingly endless array of products and services.

We offer stylish rental apparel programs which includes professional laundering, inspection and delivery — while our elevated apparel purchase collection combines custom designs with ready-to-wear styles. We replenish essential cleaning supplies and hand sanitizer, and stock restrooms with hygiene and paper products. We routinely deliver freshly laundered entrance mats and reusable microfiber products, and apply disinfectant spray and sanitizer spray to common touchpoints and surfaces. We restock first aid & safety supplies and PPE, and test and inspect fire protection equipment.

And those are just a few ways we help our customers get Ready for the Workday®.

WHAT WE STAND FOR
Above all else, we know that how we run our business is the most important thing. And that starts with fostering a supportive and inclusive environment for our dedicated, passionate employee-partners. We never forget that the success of our company wouldn’t be possible without them.

We strive to live by a higher standard at Cintas. We believe in collaboration and common respect for our people and the world around us. And while our company has grown significantly over the years, our core principles and values have remained the same.

Our ultimate competitive advantage — what makes us truly unique — has always been the Cintas culture. It’s the cornerstone of our company, and it’s how we realize world-class employee-partner engagement, impressive retention rates and a widely respected management philosophy. Our culture is also what drives us to challenge ourselves to keep innovating and improving, so we can provide even more value for our customers.

HOW WE STARTED
Our ingenuity and a commitment to doing what’s right have been central to our company since the beginning.

Richard “Dick” Farmer is credited with establishing the modern-day Cintas in 1968 — but the foundation of our fourth-generation family business was actually formed in 1929 by Dick’s grandparents, Doc and Amelia Farmer.

After the Great Depression closed the circus where they performed, Doc and Amelia saw an opportunity to collect used rags that local factories had thrown away, take them home to launder them, and then sell them back to businesses around Cincinnati. Not only did Doc and Amelia create a way to make ends meet for their family during tough times, they also developed our company’s deep-rooted sustainable business model that remains in place to this day.

In the early 1940s, Doc’s son Hershell took the company’s helm and started replacing the rags with shop towels, and it was during this time that Cintas fully converted to being a service company.

In 1959, Hershell passed management of the family’s business to his son Dick, whose long-term vision saw the company expanding into uniform rental. Dick was driven to grow the company, but more importantly he proved that reusing, recycling and cleaning uniforms in a more environmentally sustainable way could be hugely successful while still upholding our fundamental values of integrity and untiring customer service. That vision continues to inspire and guide us today.

Later, CEOs Bob Kohlhepp and Dick’s son Scott Farmer expanded our business lines into facility services, first aid and safety and fire protection. This deepened our company’s sustainable business model further, because the new products and services were based on reusing and reducing end-of-life products and decreasing the overall use of natural resources. Bob and Dick also introduced products and services to help our customers keep their own facilities, employees and customers cleaner, safer and healthier.