UniFirst acquires home-grown Rental Uniform Service

A 39-year-old Springfield company is now suiting up under a new name.

Rental Uniform Service announced Jan. 17 it was acquired by Wilmington, Mass.-based UniFirst Corporation effective July 1, 2002. The value of the deal was not disclosed.

Rental Uniform Service was founded in 1963 by President Forrest Waggoner, and the company has been family owned and operated from the beginning. Sons-in-law Brad Parke, general manager, and Randy Trantham, production manager, continue to operate the business under UniFirst.

UniFirst services customers throughout the United States and Canada, putting approximately 1.5 million workers in uniform, career wear and specialized protective clothing every business day.

"We weren't really looking to sell but this opportunity came along and it was just one of those things you couldn't pass up," said Parke, who has been with Rental Uniform Service since 1983 and was a co-owner, along with Trantham and Waggoner, before the acquisition.

UniFirst, another family-run business, was a perfect fit for the Spring-field company, he said.

The acquisition was a win for everyone involved, Parke said, including employees.

"With the exception of one individual, the entire management and staff has remained," Parke said.

And the company is adding more staff. "We have already added a sales manager who started about two weeks ago. We'll add an office person in the next four to five months and we are actively seeking another four sales consultants."

The Springfield facility employs 70 people and services 3,000 customers in 72 counties in Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Arkansas.

UniFirst has 7,500 employees serving 150,000 customers throughout North America. UniFirst supplies and services products ranging from traditional uniforms to specialty and protective clothing to corporate casual attire. Selling Power magazine ranks UniFirst as one of the top 25 service sales organizations in the country.

Among the benefits of joining a larger organization are, well, benefits.

UniFirst has already implemented its insurance program, giving employees greater coverage and benefits.

"Now we have optical and dental," Parke said. "Their dental, I've already gotten to take advantage of that and it's fabulous. It's the sort of thing we would have liked to do (as Rental Uniform Service) but being a small business, we just couldn't afford it."

He added, "UniFirst will be able to do a lot of things for our employees and our customers that we never could have done."

UniFirst has added two new route trucks to the local fleet, and the company has changed the detergent it uses, resulting in cleaner uniforms.

The company also has a program in which each manager has a peer mentor to help them through the transition to the new corporate culture.

The $10 billion uniform supply business is aggressively competitive, Parke said.

Some companies have grown by new accounts and some have grown by acquisitions. The acquisition trend is ongoing, and "there are people who claim in X number of years there will only be six to eight uniform vendors in the country," Parke added.

UniFirst's acquisition of Rental Uniform Service was a strategic coup for the national company, which was able to fill a void in its service territory.