SEDALIA, Mo. — One of the drycleaning industry’s oldest companies, Adco Inc., revealed Tuesday that it has been sold. A Cambridge, Mass.-based equity firm, Mentor Partners, assumed ownership of Adco on April 13 for an undisclosed sum.
Launched as American Disinfecting Co. in 1908, Adco Inc. is a worldwide leader in research and development, manufacturing, and distribution of chemical products for the drycleaning and laundry trades. Until the sale, Adco was owned and operated from its Sedalia, Mo., home continuously by three generations of the Van Dyne family.
Adco courted buyers wishing to run the company much as it has been for 99 years. “We have no fourth generation,” says CEO Van Van Dyne, “and we wanted to keep the company here in Sedalia, so our employees would stay employed.”
Van Dyne will stay on to run the company for at least two years, and staffing, research and distribution will continue under the new ownership virtually unchanged. “I see no changes ahead in the way we do business,” he says. “The name will remain Adco, and sales and service will not change — they could even get better. Our customers will probably never know.”
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