Aramark Corporation, commonly called Aramark, is a provider of food, facilities and clothing to business, sports facilities, educational institutions and the health care ... Keep Reading

Aramark Corporation, commonly called Aramark, is a provider of food, facilities and clothing to business, sports facilities, educational institutions and the health care industry. The company was founded and is still headquartered in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. In 2009 Aramark was listed as the 189th largest employer on the Fortune 500 list of the top 1000 American companies.
The company was founded in 1936 by David Davidson. He provided vending machine services to employees in the aviation industry in Southern California. In 1959 after partnering with William Fishman, the two established ARA (Automatic Retailers of America) and the company became publicly traded.
Aramark provided services to at the Mexico City Olympic Games in 1968, and would go on to provide services to another 14 games, including 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing Games. There was a hostile takeover try in 1984 which was unsuccessful due to a coordinated buyout by the management orchestrated by Joseph Neubauer, the CEO at the time. The company name was changed in 1994 to Aramark from ARA Services.
Aramark was again listed in the New York Stock Exchange in 2001 under the symbol RMK. Publicly traded status lasted only a few years, until 2006 when a group of investors again led by Neubauer, bought all of the outstanding shares, again making Aramark privately held.
The Aramark name is known the world over providing food and facility services to clients in 22 countries. Their services include management of on-site restaurants, catering, executive dining rooms in addition to coffee, vending and facilities management. In the education industry Aramark provides services to colleges, school systems or districts, both private and public, to the healthcare industry with services at senior living facilities patient food and nutritional services, clinical equipment maintenance and linen distribution to name only a few.
Aramark employs 255,000 full time workers worldwide.