CLS Unveils $6 Million Plant Expansion

Continental Linen Services (CLS) recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to unveil its 11,000-square-foot, $6 million expansion at its processing facility in Kalamazoo, MI, according to news reports.

CLS co-owner Kurt Vander Meer told the local NBC affiliate News 8 that the addition to the plant cost the company roughly $6 million, with $4.7 million put toward upgrading equipment and machinery. Construction on the addition began in January 2022, and was necessary due to rapid growth at the 124-year-old family-owned business.

“We’re growing,” Vander Meer said in a statement to News 8. “We’re up 20-plus percent over the last year. We need bodies, and thankfully we’ve got good bodies. So, this wasn’t a reduction of headcount. This was more about getting us some capacity for growth.”

CLS has roots in Kalamazoo dating back to 1899, and does business across the state of Michigan, with depots in Grand Rapids, Cadillac, Livonia, Saginaw and Alpena. To read more about the CLS expansion project, click here and here.