The story
Owens & Minor originally opened as a pharmacy company in downtown Richmond, Virginia in 1882, inside a historic building which still stands today. 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, changing the company name to Owens, Minor & Bodeker.
In 1966, the company acquired Virginia A&J Hospital Supply, adding medical and surgical distribution to its portfolio. By 1970, OMB had opened Cardinal Drug Centers, merchandising its products to independent drug companies, stocking shops with over 25,000 items within two years. Around this time, disposable items were distributed to hospitals for various medical procedures. G. Gilmer Minor III, a 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 ranking.
By 1999, the company had refocused toward 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. In 2012, it entered the European market, opening offices in Spain, France, Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic after the acquisition of Movianto Group. In 2014, the corporation acquired ArcRoyal, a privately held medical kit company based in Dublin, Ireland.
In 2018, it acquired Halyard Health’s Surgical & Infection Prevention business for $710 million, the largest acquisition in the company’s history. Halyard is a manufacturer of sterilization wrap, facial protection products, exam gloves, protective apparel, surgical drapes and surgical gowns.
In May 2022, Owens & Minor stated that 45 percent of the items it offers are in some way supply-constrained due to the 2021–2022 global supply chain crisis. The following month, the company broke ground in Morgantown, West Virginia for a 350,000 square-foot medical supplies and logistics center, to be completed in late 2023, which will include dedicated acute care medical distribution facilities and clinical supply capabilities.
In July 2024, the company announced it had agreed to acquire medical equipment firm Rotech Healthcare for $1.36 billion. However, the companies terminated the deal in June 2025, citing regulatory hurtles. As a result, the Owens & Minor paid Rotech an $80 million termination payment.
From Wikipedia’s article on Accendra Health, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.7