USA
TRSA, the North American association for linen rental businesses, has reported that H.I.G. Capital, a global alternative investment firm with $42 billion of equity capital under management, announced on 4 January that one of its affiliates has acquired Crothall Laundry Services from Compass Group plc, the British multinational.
Compass is the largest contract foodservice company in the world and also runs contracts in facilities management including healthcare. Crothall Laundry was a division of Compass’ Crothall Healthcare, Wayne, Pennsylvania, a diversified hospital services provider.
TRSA member Crothall Laundry was founded in 1991 and provides outsourced laundry and linen management services to the healthcare and hospitality sectors. The sale reportedly involves 29 operations that process 600 million lbs (272 million kg) of linens annually, and adheres to quality and sustainability standards and processes such as TRSA Hygienically Clean, OSHA and JCAHO guidelines.
“This is an exciting event,” said Crothall CEO Michael Barner. “Over the last three decades, we have made substantial investments in our plants, infrastructure and capabilities, while supporting the growth of leading healthcare organizations. Now, more than ever, our customers are increasingly relying on us to support their linen-management and infection-control needs. We are excited to work with H.I.G. Capital as we push ahead with our expansion plans.”
Richard Stokes, managing director at H.I.G., said: “Crothall is the clear leader in the laundry and linen-management sector, serving healthcare institutions through the combination of best-in-class operations, scalable data-driven processes and a stringent focus on quality. “These solutions have increasingly positioned Crothall as a critical partner to healthcare providers as they seek to improve the patient experience. We look forward to working with the team to build upon their success and support continued growth initiatives.”