Aramark

Because we value relationships, we treat customers as long-term partners, and each other with candor and respect. Because we succeed through performance, we encourage the entrepreneur in each of us, and work always to improve our service. Because we thrive on growth, we seek new markets and new opportunities, and we innovate to get and keep customers. And because we're ARAMARK, we do everything with integrity. Key Dates: ARA acquires the Slater Company, the largest food service business in the United States. ARA faces FTC charges due to its monopolistic control of the vending machine market. A federal grand jury begins investigating the company's student transport division; sales begin to drop off. ARAMARK purchases Odgen Corp.'s Entertainment division and secures a $700 million food service contract with Boeing Company. ARAMARK Corporation is a diversified service company whose operations include the ARAMARK Food and Support Services Group, the ARAMARK Uniforms and Career Apparel Group, and the ARAMARK Educational Resources Group. Its food service and support operations provide food, refreshments, facilities, and various other services to corporations, health care systems, schools, colleges, convention centers, national parks, sporting venues, and correctional institutions. ARAMARK's uniform operations--the second largest in the United States&mdash′ovide workplace clothing services through ARAMARK Uniform Services, WearGuard-Crest, and Gall's Inc. The firm's educational services provide child care and education programs through its Children's World Learning Centers. The division also provides private education programs. In 2000, ARAMARK--owned mainly by its employee managers--was ranked as one of the top 100 'Most Admired Companies' by Fortune magazine. ARAMARK was founded by Davre Davidson and Bill Fishman, both owners of peanut-vending businesses. The two had never met when they started expanding the boundaries of the traditional vending industry in the early 1940s. In Los Angeles, Davidson began moving his machines from traditional outlets like drug stores, bowling alleys, and restaurants to factories and offices. In Chicago, Fishman was attempting to transform his vending operation from a 'fringe benefit' into a bona fide food service operation. The two met when each won a contract to serve Douglas Aircraft plants in Santa Monica and Chicago. In the following years, they frequently discussed their desire to provide food service along with their vending operations. Finally, after a number of unsuccessful attempts to subcontract to catering companies, the two decided to merge their operations in 1959. Their company was incorporated under the name Automatic Retailers of America, Inc. (ARA), and earned $24 million in its first year. The company's dominance of the vending industry grew so quickly that in 1964 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) required ARA to divest itself of a number of vending companies, worth about $7.6 million in annual sales. The company complied, selling one-third of the required portion by 1965 and the remainder in the following year. Fishman and Davidson had other plans for their company's growth. 'We're in the service business,' ARA vice-president Harry Stephens told Business Week, 'and food is only one of the services necessary to keep an institution operating. There's janitorial services, cleaning, lawn care, security, laundry, accounting, many things.' This concept became the cornerstone of ARA's expansion. The company established a division to run resorts, sports parks, and amusement parks; acquired Air La Carte Inc., a private company that provided in-flight meals for more than 20 domestic and international airlines; and ventured into periodicals distribution, purchasing 39 local distributorships over a period of about four years. In 1972, the FTC again charged ARA with anticompetitive practices. The first complaint stated that its recent purchase of 39 distributorships posed a potential