Angelica formalizes sale of Image Apparel titles

The two buyers of the Angelica Image Apparel catalogs will likely dissolve the titles.

Cintas Corp. on April 18 formalized its agreement to buy Angelica Corp.’s non-healthcare manufacturing and marketing divisions. At the same time, St. Louis-based Angelica formally agreed to sell the healthcare portion of its manufacturing and marketing division to Mundelein, IL-based Medline Industries.

With the acquisitions come the divisions’ catalogs. Cincinnati-based Cintas gets the hospitality-industry version of Angelica’s Image Apparel catalog, which sells uniforms for hotel, restaurant, and other service employees. The version of Image Apparel that sells healthcare uniforms goes to Medline.

But according to Charley Molloy, president of Angelica’s Manufacturing and Marketing division, both Cintas and Medline plan to absorb the Image Apparel titles within their own catalogs. Cintas’s other catalogs include The Uniform Book, HealthcareDirect, and Fashion Plates, the last of which caters to the restaurant industry. The Medline core catalog sells a broad range of healthcare supplies.

The Cintas deal was expected to close next week, while the Medline sale won’t close until late May. Both deals were originally reported in Angelica’s March 21 financial report. Angelica will retain its laundry and textile services businesses and the Life Uniforms catalog/retail division.