Aramark Corporation

Is Aramark publicly traded?

Yes. Aramark trades on the NYSE under ticker ARMK. Its 2023 spin-off Vestis (uniform services) trades separately under VSTS.

What does Aramark do?

Aramark is a contract food services and facilities company. It runs concessions at stadiums, dining programs at universities and hospitals, cafeterias in workplaces, and facilities management for clients under multi-year contracts.

Who is the CEO of Aramark?

John Zillmer has served as CEO since 2019. He previously ran Allied Waste and led Aramark's food services business.

Is Aramark a Philadelphia company?

Yes. Aramark has been headquartered in Philadelphia since the 1960s, though it was founded in Los Angeles in 1936.

Davre Davidson founded Davidson Brothers in Los Angeles in 1936, selling peanuts and popcorn to factory workers during the Depression. The company built vending routes into automatic merchandising, renamed itself Automatic Retailers of America, then ARA in 1969.

ARA grew into a services conglomerate through the 1970s and 1980s, moving into uniform rental, hospital food service, corrections food service, and stadium concessions, including early sports deals that made it a fixture at major venues. The name changed to ARAMARK in 1994.

Ownership swung repeatedly: public listing in 1960, a management buyout led by CEO Joseph Neubauer in 1984, a return to the NYSE in 2001, a second leveraged buyout in 2007 by Neubauer and investors including Goldman Sachs, and a third IPO in 2013. John Zillmer, a veteran of the services industry who ran Allied Waste and Aramark's food business, became CEO in 2019.

The defining recent event was the October 2023 separation: Aramark spun its uniform services division to shareholders as Vestis Corporation, refocusing the parent entirely on food and facilities. Fiscal 2024 revenue was roughly $17.4 billion, and fiscal 2025 results showed continued revenue growth around the $18 billion level on strong sports and healthcare demand.

Aramark publishes annual sustainability reporting covering responsible sourcing, cage-free and sustainable seafood commitments, food waste reduction, and its Be Well. Do Well. platform. Its large hourly workforce and sourcing scale make labor practices and supply chain standards its most material ESG issues.

Aramark has faced recurring controversies tied to its scale and government contracts: criticism and investigations over food quality and labor practices in correctional food service, which led it to begin exiting the prison food business; wage and union disputes with UNITE HERE at venues; and periodic lawsuits over unpaid wages and working conditions. Individual stadiums have drawn food safety violations in health inspections.