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Aramark

Nation's leading food service company.

Headquarters:
1101 Market St.
Philadelphia, PA 19107
Employees: 255,000
CEO: Joseph Neubauer
Privately held

Website: http://www.aramark.com

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Aramark is the nation's leading provider of food management services for businesses, colleges, schools, convention centers, correctional facilities, hospitals, parks and sports arenas. Aramark also provides support services to clients as well as uniform and career apparel services.

The company provides meals for dorms, catering and planning for conferences and conventions. Aramark can provide custodial services, facilities management and even manage recreational services for clients.

The company has customers in 22 countries including Belgium, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Spain, United Kingdom and Mexico.

The company is privately held.

History

In 1936, Davre Davidson had a vision to put vending machines in factories and offices places they had never been before. In Davidson's mind, his business was not "vending," it was service. This concept was shared by another like-minded entrepreneur, William Fishman, who ran Automatic Merchandising Company, a vending machine company based in Chicago.

A mutual customer, Douglas Aircraft, brought the two men together during World War II. Davidson managed vending for Douglas Aircraft's Southern California plant, while Fishman handled vending at its Chicago plant. They shared ideas and became fast friends.

In September 1959, Davidson and Fishman merged their operations into one, and the combined company became known as Automatic Retailers of America, or ARA for short. In 1960 they took ARA public to infuse the enterprise with new capital and expand the business. At that time, ARA's annual revenue exceeded $37 million.

In 1976, the company entered the work uniform rental and career apparel industry, as businesses sought uniforms and other textile products to distinguish their brands from competitors and to increase employee morale. In 1980, ARA Services acquired National Child Care Centers, Inc. and entered the childcare arena.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, emphasis was shifting from "serving" to "partnering." Reflecting this change, ARA Services changed its name to ARAMARK in 1994.

In 2001, ARAMARK returns to the New York Stock Exchange as a public company under the RMK ticker.

On January 26, 2007, Aramark was acquired by an investor group led by CEO Joseph Neubauer and investment funds managed by GS Capital Partners, CCMP Capital Advisors and J.P. Morgan Partners, Thomas H. Lee Partners and Warburg Pincus LLC.

Benefits

Aramark offers a full range of benefits including medical, dental, vision, employee assistance, and paid vacation and holidays provide for personal well being, while retirement savings, disability income, and life insurance help contribute to financial security.

Updated October 18, 2010