Owens & Minor Inc. distributes medical and surgical supplies to the acute-care market and helps customers manage their supply chains. Those customers include 4,500 hospitals, alternate care units and the federal government. Its products include disposable gloves, dressings, endoscopic equipment, syringes, surgical products and gowns, and sutures.
The company was founded in Richmond, Va., in 1882. Today it has approximately 5,100 employees, with an additional 1,800 soon to come aboard from its recent acquisition of Movianto Group, the health care logistics division of Celesio A.G. in Germany. Last year’s revenues reached $9 billion, worth a No. 298 ranking on the Fortune 500. Board chairman G. Gilmer Minor III is the great-grandson of founding partner George Gilmer Minor Jr., whose own ancestor was Thomas Jefferson’s doctor.
