The linen, uniform and facility services industry is grappling with recurring supply-chain issues in the wake of a rebounding U.S. economy. Faced with robust consumer and business demand, companies are beefing up costly inventories and wooing second-level suppliers to help close the gaps when shortages arise.

In recent years, textile services companies have regularly experienced product shortages and delays—and associated price hikes—thanks to the impact of international tariffs. However, COVID-19 has transformed an exercise in efficient materials distribution into a full-scale crisis.

“With the arrival of the pandemic in early 2020, linen shipments that normally took three or four days ...