Our History
Throughout the last century, we have thrived in a highly competitive market. With five generations of the Williams family at its helm, the company is one of the oldest family-owned and operated businesses in mid-Missouri. Throughout the years, each generation of Williams family members have adapted the company’s mission to enable it to keep its market edge.
Founded in 1891, the bulk of business for what started as Mexico Steam Laundry consisted of men’s starched shirts and detachable collars and cuffs. In the years that followed, the company expanded the business, adding newer and more productive technology as it became available.
Due to strong financial management decisions and a strict adherence to the business philosophy of quality product and quality service, the company has evolved through a variety of market strategies and product lines to arrive at today’s Crown Linen Service. Today, the company provides rental textiles to all types of businesses in central and eastern Missouri as well as western Illinois. Textiles include everything from healthcare linens and hotel linens to restaurant linens for both the dining areas and the kitchens.
Crown Linen Service processes roughly 460,000 pounds of linen each week, with about 160,000 pounds coming from the Mexico MO facility and the other 300,000 pounds being process in the Columbia, IL facility. To help put that in perspective, a sheet weighs one pound and a napkin weighs two ounces. Stainless steel washers which are able to hold 900 pounds of laundry have long since replaced wooden washers. Microprocessors now control chemical injection of detergent, bleaches and anti-chlorine rinses to ensure the finest and cleanest finish possible.
While each generation has adjusted the business to the commercial needs of the area and the time, a commitment to service and the quality of our products has remained constant.
“My grandfather, Turner Williams, said you have to be thinking and working all the time. He stresses a business philosophy of quality of our product and of our service, which we continue to stress today,” said former company president, Bill Williams.
The management team assembled at Crown agrees that the typical business day flies by, filled with a variety of decisions to be made. Managers and supervisors with over twenty years of service to the company as well as those with less than a year all agree that regular delivery deadlines prevent boredom. Every day, thousands of tablecloths, napkins and pieces of industrial clothing including lab coats, scrubs and aprons are trucked into the Mexico, MO and Columbia, IL production facilities from across Missouri and western Illinois. And each day they are reloaded with textile orders to be delivered to over 2,600 different restaurants, hospitals and factories across the region.
The company employs over 140 people in two production facilities located in Mexico, MO and in Columbia, IL. In 2005, the company became a member and owner of Crown Textile Services, LLC, a laundry production facility located in Columbia, Illinois. Our expansion to Columbia, IL in 2005 brought many new customers and employees, but has not changed Crown’s dedication to quality and service.
