Executive Chairman, Cintas
Search every verified Scott Farmer interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. In an August 2018 interview, Scott Farmer, then Chairman and CEO of Cintas, discussed the company's performance and the broader economy. Farmer described the U.S. economy as "in very good shape" with a "very strong" job market, noting that business owners he spoke with were having difficulty finding workers. He stated that Cintas benefits from this environment because the company needs people to wear its uniforms and use its supplies. Farmer said Cintas sources products globally and that tariffs had not significantly affected the company, though he expressed concern about their potential impact on certain customer industry segments. Farmer highlighted the company's growth potential by stating that Cintas serves about one million business customers in the U.S. and Canada, while an estimated 16 to 18 million additional businesses do not currently use its products or services. He described this untapped market as "the great growth opportunity." Farmer also noted that Cintas is a family-founded business, with his great-grandparents having started a small laundry in Cincinnati and his father considered the company's founder. He mentioned that three family members in their early 20s—two nephews and his son—are working in the business as sales managers or sales representatives after completing the management training program.
“Well the economy obviously is in very good shape. The job market is very strong. One of the things when I talk to business people that I hear most is that they're having trouble finding people to fill the jobs that they have.”
“We source all over the globe really and so it depends on the different types of items... quotas, tariffs, things like that that we deal with in different parts of the world but we source globally.”
“So far it hasn't affected us very much. We're monitoring where it's gonna go from here and my concern more than how it's going to affect our supply chain... is how it might impact certain industry segments that are our customer base.”
“The really, really good news about our business is that we provide products and services that we think every business needs. We do business today with about a million business customers across the United States and Canada and there's some 16 to 18 million more businesses out there that don't currently use our products...”
“It does historically — my great-grandparents started a small laundry business in Cincinnati, Ohio... my dad's really our founder. I'm a fourth-generation family member and we feel a responsibility to our employee partners, to our customers and to our shareholders and so it obviously impacts us.”
“As a public company we have a great opportunity to access capital and do the things that we need to do to continue to grow the business as I look out into the future.”
“That's good news for all of us but you know we obviously benefit from that because we need people out there to wear those uniforms and use the other supplies and services that we provide.”
Cintas CEO Scott Farmer discusses what has driven demand for his company's services: Providing uniforms and other supplies to corporations.
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