Owens & Minor

Owens & Minor is now one of seven Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the Richmond area

Owens & Minor initially opened as a drug company on the streets of downtown Richmond, Virginia in 1882, inside a historic building which still stands today.[8] The company continued this business for over half a century, until in 1954 Gil Minor, Jr., bought out Bodeker Drug Company, a smaller operation in the same industry.[8]

In 1966 Owens, Minor & Bodeker acquired A&J Hospital Supply, a local company. This was the company's initial entrance to the market of medical and surgical distribution. By 1970, OMB had opened Cardinal Drug Centers to provide merchandising for more independent drug companies, and within two years the stores stocked more than 25,000 items. Around this time, disposable items were administered to hospitals for various medical procedures.[8] G. Gilmer Minor III, of direct relation to the founder, became CEO in 1984. By 1988, Owens & Minor began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker OMI. It was around this time that revenues earned the company a Fortune 500 title.[8]

By 1999, the corporation had refocused its pursuits towards medical supply chain management. Throughout the 2000s, Owens & Minor acquired various medical distributors across the United States, notably the hospital distributor McKesson Medical-Surgical Inc., a business unit of McKesson, for $152.1 million, on September 30, 2006.[8][9] In 2012, Owens & Minor entered the European market, opening offices in Spain, France, Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic after the acquisition of Movianto Group.[10] In 2014, the corporation acquired ArcRoyal, a privately held medical kit company based in Dublin, Ireland.[11]

In 2018, Owens & Minor acquired Halyard Health’s Surgical & Infection Prevention business for $710 million, the largest acquisition in Owens & Minor’s history.[12] Halyard is a manufacturer of sterilization wrap, facial protection products, exam gloves, protective apparel, surgical drapes and surgical gowns.

On March 7, 2019 Edward A. Pesicka joined the company as the President and Chief Executive Officer. Pesicka was a former executive at Thermo Fisher Scientific. He will also join the company's Board of Directors.

In the 4th quarter of 2017, Owens & Minor opened a second office to host the new Customer Engagement Center (CEC) in downtown Richmond, Virginia as part of a business rebranding strategy. Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe said, "This announcement is an outstanding example of our continuing work building a new Virginia economy."[13] The corporation will also continue to work out of its various offices across the United States.[13]

In 2018 the company’s Movianto subsidiary won the contract to warehouse and distribute the UK government’s stock of emergency personal protection equipment, previously managed by DHL. The contract was estimated at £10.5m a year.

Following a dispute over payment of rent, Movianto gained a UK High Court injunction in March 2019 to stop Industrial North West LLP, the owner of the industrial estate, from locking the gates and thereby stopping Movianto’s employees from transferring stock.[14]

In 2020 Movianto was criticised after allegedly causing delays to the distribution of the UK government’s stockpile of personal protective equipment (PPE). Following news of shortages in hospitals, the British army was sent to Movianto’s warehouse to deploy the PPE.

An investigation also established that Movianto had previously stored the equipment in a smoke-damaged warehouse that was found to contain asbestos.[15]

On 16 January 2020, Owens & Minor announced its intention to sell its European logistics business, Movianto, to EHDH Holding Group (EHDH), a privately held French company and one of Europe’s leading providers of healthcare logistics services.[16]

On 18 June 2020, Owens & Minor announced the completion of the sale of Movianto to EHDH Holding Group.[17]

• https://web.archive.org/web/20170607205849/http://beta.fortune.com/fortune500/list/
• http://www.vahistorical.org/collections-and-resources/how-we-can-help-your-research/researcher-resources/finding-aids/owens
• https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=6730246&privcapId=36012
• https://www.owens-minor.com/were-owens--minor/legacy

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