Aramark
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Aramark Template:Nyse is an international corporation involved in the business of providing institutional services, including food and uniform service, to clients including hospitals, schools, business, and sports facilities. Based in Philadelphia, its shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol RMK.
Aramark was founded in 1959 by Davre Davidson and William Fishman as Automatic Retailers of America, whose business was in vending machines. ARA bought Philadelphia's Slater Systems, Inc., in 1961.
ARA's first international operation was the catering of the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. The next year, Automatic Retailers of America became ARA Services. In 1977, ARA entered the uniform business.
ARA changed its name to Aramark in 1994.
Part of Aramark's highly lucrative business involves prison catering and prison shops. Providing goods and services to what is literally a "captive market" is very profitable - a point made by the Campaign Against Prison Slavery (http://www.libcom.org/hosted/caps/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=419) in its allegations against the multinational corporation. In this connection, it should be noted that Jim Petro, Auditor of the State of Ohio, wrote a scathing report on Aramark after a special investigation into the company's catering activities at the State's prisons (see report (http://nicic.org/Misc/URLShell.aspx?SRC=Catalog&REFF=http://nicic.org/Library/017331&ID=017331&TYPE=PDF&URL=http://www.auditor.state.oh.us/AuditSearch/Reports/2001/ohio_department_of_rehabilitation_and_correction_98_00-special_franklin.pdf)). The audit report, which covered the period from July 1, 1998 to October 31, 2000, found that the company had billed Ohio's prisons as if had served 4,462,649 meals instead of the 2,803,722 meals actually dished up. The difference represented over-billing of some $2.08 million. Aramark subsequently lost the contract in 2000 when State employees put in a bid that was $1 m dollars lower than the company's one.
External links
- ARAMARK (http://www.aramark.com/)