Sixty years ago this month, Medline was, to borrow the popular cliché, “small but mighty.” Officially founded in June 1966 by brothers Jim and Jon Mills, the company began as a modest, family-run operation that manufactured healthcare apparel for providers in and around Chicago — a natural evolution from the meat-packing aprons, surgical gowns and nurses’ attire that the brothers’ grandfather, A.L. Mills, had started supplying local customers two generations earlier.

Today, the company is far more than what A.L. Mills could have ever imagined:

• A distributor of approximately 335,000 healthcare products, including approximately 190,000 under the Medline Brand and about 70,000 of those self-manufactured
• Net sales of more than $28.4 billion in 2025
• 70 global distribution centers
• 30 global manufacturing facilities
• More than 45,000 employees worldwide, including a U.S. commercial team of more than 4,000
• A fleet of 2,100+ MedTrans delivery trucks enabling next-day delivery to 95% of U.S. customers

Medline hasn’t just gotten better with age — it has made healthcare run better with age.

“The evidence of our impact is unmistakable as we’ve progressed through the years, relentlessly focusing on serving healthcare providers across all points of care, building a massive product portfolio and establishing one of the most robust and resilient supply chains in the industry,” said Doug Golwas, chief commercial officer. “Every moment of every day, as healthcare providers seek to provide the best care for their patients, Medline is right by their side.”

With six decades of history behind it, the Medline you see in 2026 didn’t just happen. It was built on millions of moments through which Medline provided customers with the products, supply chain dependability and fierce dedication to problem-solving that allow them to stay focused on what matters most.

That said, there are key turning points that dramatically shaped Medline into what it has become: a trusted mainstay in healthcare long before its arrival on the Nasdaq stock exchange, when CEO Jim Boyle called it “the largest company you’ve never heard of” for many outside the industry.

When did Medline truly become more?

1972: From fabrics into plastics

Six years after its founding and four years after opening its first textile manufacturing plant, Medline launched its Dynacor Plastics division after buying an injection molding company. Today, the single-use Dynacor products made in Mundelein, Ill., include items used every day in care settings far and wide: male urinals, bedpans, sharps containers, basins, carafes and much more.

1985: Tray time

By the 1980s, it was clear that clinicians needed better efficiency, standardized tools, fewer touchpoints and less waste and contamination risk when it came to medical and surgical procedures. Medline heard them, answering the call by creating customized surgical procedure trays — its first step into the kitting business that is now a Medline specialty. Today the company produces more than 250 million procedure kits every year across North America, Australia, Asia and Europe.

1996: Full-scale ahead in distribution

The request came from a Medline customer — why not have one distribution partner to handle all medical-surgical logistics and supplies? And why couldn’t that partner be Medline? With that, the company entered the full-scale distribution world, no longer just a manufacturer and supplier. The Prime Vendor model, in which Medline acts as a customer’s supply chain logistics arm, resiliency hawk and single point of business, is now central to how the company operates, with the retention rate for Prime Vendor customers exceeding 98% over the last five years as Medline maintains an industry-leading service level — the amount of orders that are filled correctly, completely and on time — above 99%. Of the top-performing hospitals recognized in 2025 by U.S. News & World Report and Gartner, Medline is the Prime Vendor distributor for more than half of them.

2004-2005: Skin in the game and class in session

With the acquisition of Carrington’s skin and wound care products in 2000, Medline entered the skin health business — an opportunity it harnessed fully when it launched its innovative Remedy skin care line in 2004 to help providers more effectively prevent pressure injuries and skin damage with their patients. But quality products alone weren’t the answer. Medline also recognized the need for in-service education and training on the best ways to use these products. The company began offering this support through Medline University classes in 2005, and over the next decade expanded its clinical education support around Medline products into infection prevention, incontinence, vascular access and other categories.

2025: Proudly public

Medline’s initial public offering near the end of 2025 was the largest of the year in the U.S. and the third-largest in the last 10 years, raising more than $7 billion to support continued investment in innovation, resiliency and value-driven solutions for Medline customers across all points of care.

With 60 years of uninterrupted growth and progress under its belt, Medline is still in many ways just getting started.

“This isn’t just an anniversary for us,” said Amanda Laabs, chief product officer. “It’s a moment to appreciate and build on where we’ve been as a trusted force in healthcare, what we’ve helped make possible for every healthcare provider who has put their faith in us and the progress yet to come in making healthcare run better. The dedication of Medline simply doesn’t stop.”

Medline morsels

An anniversary celebration calls for cake. Here are few sweet bites about Medline you probably didn’t know:

• A textile manufacturer by origin, Medline is behind one of the softer details seen every day in hospitals: the signature KuddleUp™ striped baby blanket. It also was an early driver of different-colored scrubs for different job functions for easy identification, a practice it helps customers implement through its SuiteStyles® program for uniform management.
• Medline products have appeared in the background of numerous major TV shows and movies, including “The Bear” (CURAD first-aid brand), “Grey’s Anatomy” (scrubs and pre-op scrubbing gel), “House” and “Private Practice” (hospital supplies and IV equipment), “Friends” (KuddleUp blanket) and “The Whale” (wheelchair).
• Since 2023, Medline has hosted a national MedTrans Truck Rodeo, with drivers feeding in from regional preliminaries as they compete against each other in various driving and safety challenges.
• Medline is the world’s largest user of the AutoStore robotic storage and retrieval system by Swisslog, with 24 separate installations at its U.S. distribution centers since 2013 to help the teams fill orders faster and more efficiently.
• At Medline’s ReNewal facility in Redmond, Ore., where teams restore single-use medical devices to their original quality for another use, the staff disassembles, inspects, decontaminates, repairs, reassembles and tests an average of 20,000 devices per day that otherwise would have been thrown away.
• Models that have redefined how Medline serves customers in the U.S. are translating internationally as well, with Medline Canada entering into its first Prime Vendor-style agreement this spring and Medline Australia recently adding to its fleet of MedTrans trucks.