Medical product maker Medline Industries’ revenue eclipsed $20 billion last year, adding more than 230 new healthcare provider and health system accounts worth nearly $2 billion in 2021 sales as Covid-19 raged around the world.
The growth comes in a historic Covid-19 pandemic for Medline, a privately held medical product maker that has grown rapidly making personal protective equipment during the pandemic. The company, owned by the Mills family of the north suburban Chicago suburbs, doesn’t disclose profit figures but said Wednesday the company has had double-digit percentage growth for a half century.
Medline makes everything from masks, surgical gowns and drapes to sanitizing products and biohazard bags.
“Throughout 2021, the Medline team remained laser-focused on supporting our customers through another challenging year and strengthening the resiliency of the healthcare supply chain,” Doug Golwas, executive vice president of acute care sales for Medline said. “Heading into 2022, that commitment remains as we continue to partner with our customers and together identify new strategies to enhance operational and clinical efficiencies.”
To be sure, Medline said it has taken more steps to grow this year and beyond, spending $1.5 billion on manufacturing, seven new U.S.-based distribution centers and upgrades to systems as part of its “healthcare resilience initiative.”
Medline last year attracted a major partner in the form of private equity firms led by Blackstone, Carlyle and Hellman & Friedman, which bought a $30 billion majority stake in the family-owned medical product maker.
Medline continues to be led by the Mills family, which remains the largest single shareholder. Andy Mills is president, his cousin Charlie Mills is CEO and Andy’s brother-in-law Jim Abrams is COO.
Medline, which had $17.5 billion in revenue in 2020 and $13.9 billion in 2019 – the year before Covid-19 hit in the U.S. and most countries – said the company opened “five newly constructed distribution centers in 2021, with two more to be completed in 2022.”
“The newest LEED-certified distribution center, set to be fully operational during the first quarter of 2022, is located in Richmond Hill, Georgia, less than 30 miles from the Port of Savannah,” the company said. “The Richmond Hill facility will provide an additional 1.2 million square feet of space to stockpile needed supplies for customer distribution centers throughout the region – bringing Medline’s total medical-grade U.S. warehousing footprint to more than 27 million square feet.”
