About Lindström

We are proud of our 175-year long history and equally excited about what the next 175 will bring.

Overview
Strategy
Purpose
History
Collaboration
Management
Global presence
Certificates & Memberships

Lindström as a company

Lindström is a textile service company focused on making our customers’ lives easier in Europe and in Asia.

With 175 years of experience in the textile industry, we offer a wide variability of services ranging from workwear, mats, restaurants and hotel textiles to industrial wipers, cleanroom and washroom services.

At Lindström, we focus on making our customers’ lives easier by supporting them to shine and their businesses to grow. Our textile services, rooted in a circular economy principles, provide an easy and cost-effective solution for meeting your company’s textile needs. We strive to create value for our customers in everything we do, executed with excellent customer experience.

Strategy

Lindström’s Strategy 2030 is designed to build on our past successes and set ambitious targets for the future. Our strategy is not a revolution but an evolution, supporting our progress as an industry forerunner.

Our vision and promise

We aim to be the trusted forerunner in circular textile services, provided with dedication. Trust requires transparency, and our customers can be sure we provide them with transparent solutions that fit their evolving needs. Our circular business model uses circular textiles towards an increasingly closed loop, making it easy for our customers to make sustainable choices.

Purpose, mission and vision

At Lindström, we set our vision and strategy every five years to stay focused on what matters most. Our values guide us in deciding where we want to go and how we’ll get there. Each year, our Group Management Team reviews our goals and plans to make sure we’re on the right track. When changes happen – whether it’s a shift in purpose, vision, mission, or strategy – we make sure everyone understands what it means for their daily work by discussing it together.

Our purpose

We care for people and our planet by inspiring people to shine and businesses to grow sustainably.

Our mission

We are a textile service company focused on making our customer’s life easier. Everyday, we strengthen the image of our customers.

Our vision 2030

By 2030, our aim is to be a trusted forerunner in circular textile services, provided with dedication. This vision for 2030 guides both our group and our regions to the future.

Values that guide our daily work

Our values

Lindström aims at long-term development of operations as well as the creation of long-term partnerships. The decision-making is not guided by growth alone – the objective is to make sustainable solutions that ensure profitable growth.

The impact of the values also shows in business expansion decisions. Business operations are not launched in a country until personnel and partners meet the company values and ethical instructions.

The values and their manifestation in daily work are regularly analysed: they are part of the annual performance appraisal discussions.

Profitable growth

Lindström’s operations are cost-conscious and cost-efficient – this guarantees profitable growth. Different projects are prioritised by management according to the overall benefit to the company. Every project must support our vision. Decisions are made on a long-term basis, and resources are allocated for supporting growth.

Responsibility

Long-term customer relationships

Genuine partnership requires mutual confidence, continuous development of operations and mutual benefit in business. Lindström listens to its customers, anticipates the customer’s needs and offers competitive services. We react immediately to customer demands.

Enthusiasm and joy of learning

History

Experts in textiles since 1848

Over the course of Lindström’s history, the company has grown from a fabric dyeing house to a laundry, to a professional textile service company. At 175 years old, we continue to be a family-owned pioneer.

1848 Lindström is established

Carl August Lindström established Lindström in 1848. At the beginning, the company operated as a textile dyeing house in Helsinki in the area of the current Parliament House. In the 1880s, the dyeing house was complemented by a laundry providing a new service called dry cleaning. The shop was named C. A. Lindström & Son.

Growth started in the 1890s

Due to the generation change that took place in 1891, Lindström’s name was changed to W. E. Lindström and strong expansion began. By 1913, the company’s personnel had increased from a few family members to 55 employees and it had moved to larger premises in Helsinki.

Company acquisition and new owner in the 1920s

In 1922, W. E. Lindström Oy’s share capital was purchased by Uusi Pesula Oy, specialising in white laundry, whose principal shareholder was Chief Engineer Johan Roiha. The company became one of the largest actors in the field in the Nordic countries.

Textile renting begins in the 1930s

Small-scale textile renting operations were launched in the 1930s. The company rented linen, sheets, table cloths and napkins as well as doctor and barber’ coats for its customers. In 1939, the company laundered 2.4 million kilos of textiles and its number of employees had increased to 300.

Shortages in the 1940s require improvisation

Steam production required continuous heating of the boilers and, due to the fuel shortage, firewood was used for heating. The daily firewood consumption was 70 m³, and the company purchased standing forest to satisfy its fuel need.

Investment in clothing renting increases in the 1950s

Even though the share of private laundry in the company’s turnover was over 80%, Manager Eino Roiha saw the company’s future as increasingly linked to the renting of workwear and textiles. The decision was also furthered by a new fabric type developed in the USA that required no ironing or pressing.

Renting of towel roll dispensers in the 1960s

In 1965, Lindström started to rent out towel roll dispensers. At the same time, the share of private laundry started to decline, mostly due to the availability of automatic home washing machines.

Rental mats in the 1970s

In 1971, the mat rental operations were launched. Three years later, Lindström acquired its competitors Lainatekstiilit Oy and Cleaner Oy, thus strengthening its market position as a company providing rental services of workwear, towel roll dispensers and mats. The operations of the textile dyeing house were discontinued due to poor demand and profitability.

Concentration and internationalisation in the 1990s

The company gave up its cleaning and waste management operations as well as laundry shops and concentrated on textile renting. In 1992, Lindström established its first subsidiary in Estonia. This was followed by the establishments of subsidiaries in Russia (1993), Hungary (1994), Latvia (1994), the Czech Republic (1996), Lithuania (1998), Slovakia (1998) and Slovenia (1998).

Patent on modular laundries in the early 2000s

In autumn 2002, Lindström’s internationally unique innovation, the modular laundry, was granted a patent. In the early 2000s, Comforta Oy, specialising in hotel textiles, was established. In 2005, Lindström acquired Vision Design Oy, specialising in corporate textiles and PR products, and expanded its corporate clothing offering to personal protective equipment.

Asian business operations launched in 2006

Lindström continued its strong internationalisation in the 2000s. In Europe, operations were expanded to the United Kingdom (2001), Germany (2002), Poland (2002), Sweden (2002), Romania (2005), Ukraine (2006), Türkiye (2007) and Bulgaria (2008). In 2006, the operations were expanded to Asia when a subsidiary was established in China and, a year later, in India.

Additional growth in the 2010s

In 2011, Lindström expanded its operations to Belarus and Croatia. The subsidiaries in Serbia and Kazakhstan started in 2014. In 2015, Lindström continued its service globalization by establishing a subsidiary in South Korea.

Building a global network for Prodem

Lindström opened its first Prodem factory in Latvia 2017. Since then, Prodem factories have also been opened in India 2018 and in Hungary 2020. Prodem is a unique workwear manufacturing concept where workwear is produced only based on customer orders and demand. Our unique Prodem concept reduces the environmental impact as the products are manufactured for the real need and nearby customer to minimize both transportation and warehousing needs. Faster deliveries means a better customer experience.

Lindström celebrating 170 years

In 2018, Lindström celebrated its 170th anniversary throughout the whole year and in all the Group´s locations together with its employees and customers.

The 2020s begins with changes

In 2020, Lindström accelerated its future growth in Asia by acquiring the Chinese operations of Cintas, the world´s biggest textile services company. After also acquiring Alsco´s operations in Shanghai, Suzhou, and Guangzhou in 2022, Lindström became the only international textile service operator in the fast-growing Chinese market. The year 2022 also marked time of relinquishment, when – as a result of Russia´s war of aggression in Ukraine – Lindström announced its withdrawal from business in both Russia and Belarus.

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Management

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Industry experts

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Our global presence

Growing strong, globally

Over the course of Lindström’s history, the company has grown from a fabric dyeing house into a laundry and onwards to become a professional in textile renting.

4700

Personnel

Pieces of textiles in circulation (million)

506.2

Turnover(Million)

Countries

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