VANCOUVER, British Columbia — While much of the healthcare services industry is experiencing consolidation and ownership turnover, family-owned Ecotex Healthcare Linen Service continues to invest in the future of hospital and patient care, the company says.

As a privately owned, multi-generational family enterprise since 1959, Ecotex says it is committed to sustained investment in people, infrastructure, and product innovation to support long-term hospital partnerships across North America.

Ecotex owns and operates regional plants built for reliability, redundancy, and emergency backup capacity, including the largest healthcare laundry plant in North America. 

In November 2023, Ecotex returned to full family ownership for the first time since 2016, when the Bartsch family repurchased all of Fengate Capital Management’s interests.

“We measure success in decades-long partnerships, not investment cycles,” says Bryan Bartsch, president and CEO of Ecotex, the third generation of family ownership who has led the company since 2002. 

“For three generations, our family has built relationships with healthcare organizations that rely on us for consistency, trust, and accountability over many years. That long-term focus lets us invest in product innovation, maintain the equipment and systems that keep our HLAC (Healthcare Laundry Accreditation Council) and Hygienically Clean Healthcare accreditations in place, and fully support our hospital partners across the five- to 20-year contract cycles they operate in.”

Private equity activity in North American healthcare reached a record $191 billion in 2025, according to Bain & Company (Global Healthcare Private Equity Report 2026), with $62 billion in provider and related services alone, a 57% year-over-year increase. 

Private equity firms have acquired providers across hospital-facing services including clinical staffing, food services, sterilization, and linen services, raising questions for hospital procurement teams about service quality and continuity of investment.

As a family-owned operation, Ecotex delivers advantages to its customers in several ways, it says.

First, Ecotex has sustained investment in product innovation. The ECO-Gown^® patient gown reduces hospital costs by 25-50% and disposable medical waste by 80% per gown. The Compel^® and ProMax^® surgical gown lines deliver 93% waste reduction and 64% cost reduction in operating rooms.

Second, the company sets clinical infection control standards at every facility. Ecotex processes more than 250 million pounds of healthcare textiles annually across multiple HLAC and Hygienically Clean Healthcare accredited facilities, with continuous investment in chemical dispensing, wash monitoring, and quality control systems. The company recently completed reaccreditations across multiple regional plants.

Finally, Ecotex’s leadership stays in place through full hospital contract cycles. Hospital supply contracts often span 5 to 20 years, meaning Ecotex’s family leadership is in place at signing and during renewal a decade later, the company states. 

Ecotex serves more than 700 healthcare facilities across North America, with 20% compounded annual growth driven by long-term hospital partnerships.