Hospeco Brands Group
In a market crowded with SKUs, private labels, and fast-moving disruptions, Hospeco Brands Group is attempting something simple: Make buying easier.
The Cleveland-rooted company—whose family of legacy brands stretches back more than a century—has spent the past several years stitching acquisitions, manufacturers, and distributor-facing product lines into a single operating company designed to serve jansan, hospitality, healthcare, industrial, and specialty channels. The key, according to Jennifer Moore, Hospeco’s chief marketing officer, is to do it without erasing what customers already trust.
“We are focused on our ultimate goal of one source of supply underneath strong brands that really service this important cleaning industry that we are a part of,” Moore said. “We’ve brought together multiple legacy companies and brands under this one source of supply, and we’re transitioning into Hospeco Brands Group as one operating company—highlighting our legacy brands and building upon what they’ve brought to us as a company, to the industries we serve, as well as establishing our new face to the market and our go-forward strategy.”
Building legacy
Hospeco’s story is a familiar one in the away-from-home hygiene business: A long history as a recognized supplier, combined with a more recent appetite for both organic and acquisition-driven growth.
The company has consolidated household names and niche specialists, including Impact Products, Safety Zone, Nilodor, Adenna, Monarch Brands, and others, while integrating chemical manufacturers, controlled-environment providers, and dispensing systems under a single commercial umbrella. The ultimate goal is to offer the best-in-class products their customers and partners expect and to simplify the process for distributors and facility managers to get the right products from a single source at a single time.
“We value what Hospeco has brought to the market since 1919,” Moore said. “There’s a strong product legacy, there’s a strong focus on product quality, on distribution, on the variety of the product housed under our powerhouse brand.”
That balancing act—honoring legacy positioning while creating a more seamless buying experience—drives Hospeco Brands Group’s commercial playbook. Moore says company leaders group their portfolio into strategic business units so each product family receives dedicated attention, yet can be bundled and cross-sold as customers demand simpler procurement.
“Within each strategic business unit, we have cross-functional teams from throughout the organization,” Moore said. “It will incorporate sales, marketing, sourcing, quality, purchasing, and finance, every aspect of the business. These strategic business units focus on bringing the right product to market in a quality fashion for what our customers need, as well as understanding the cost structure, distribution, and operations behind it.”
Precision counts
For buyers, the most visible benefit of Hospeco’s strategy is a smaller vendor list and a more consistent product experience.
Under the hood, the company drives consistency through standardized sourcing, consolidated supplier relationships, and harmonized quality controls—systems that let customers order “one line, one shipment, one invoice” instead of juggling vendors for gloves, wipes, chemicals, and dispensers.
Moore pointed to two recent portfolio rationalizations as examples: Gloves and microfiber products. Following COVID-19’s surge in demand, the glove category became crowded with suppliers, private-label brands, and opportunistic entrants. Hospeco Brands Group responded by consolidating glove SKUs under the Safety Zone master brand, simplifying distribution and supply planning. Microfiber followed a similar path, with Hospeco Brands Group rationalizing its supply sources, and positioning Hospeco as the go-forward brand for that product family.
“When you go to market in a category under three, four, or five different brands, it’s challenging to focus on what customers really need, which is a dedicated source of supply that they can depend on at a price that makes sense in the way the market is structured today,” Moore said. “That’s when we brought together all of our legacy brands and really focused on Safety Zone moving forward.”
The human side: Sales, passion, and process
Consolidation at scale raises a common worry: What happens to the people who loved the old brands? Hospeco Brands Group’s approach is to lean into that passion rather than erase it. Moore described programs that redirect sales enthusiasm toward the new portfolio, supported by cross-functional buy-in and a clear roadmap for sales, sourcing, and marketing.
“You can’t teach passion to salespeople,” Moore said. “So we appreciate it. It’s about putting that portfolio together, getting buy-in from these cross-functional teams to bring all the good, and then really focusing efforts on the new brands going forward. It doesn’t mean that those legacy brands or companies are going away. It’s about building upon them so that the salespeople and that passion is redirected to the go-forward picture for Hospeco Brands Group.”
That human element also shows up in the company’s organizational design. Moore described an operating model where product managers, sales leaders, and sourcing teams sit together in focused business units; where purchasing and quality assurance are integrated into new product discussions early; and where the job of the marketing team is often to translate technical attributes into benefits that are distributor-facing.
“We want to be that one source of supply that can satisfy the jansan channel, industrial channels, and specialty markets, and bring all those products together to make it easier for our customers,” Moore said.
Beyond products: Advocacy and purpose
Hospeco Brands Group’s integration strategy is not just commercial; it’s also civic. Moore highlighted the company’s work with ISSA and its participation in advocacy and social initiatives. She spoke passionately about Hospeco’s leadership and its flagship role in launching the End Period Poverty movement, working to place feminine hygiene supplies in away-from-home settings in partnership with ISSA and other manufacturers.
Supporting the industry as a Period Partner is a strong focus for Hospeco Brands Group.
“Being able to go to the Hill with ISSA and advocate for cleaning companies, people who are in the industry, students who want to go into service jobs and environments—it was an honor and a pleasure,” Moore said. “One thing I’ve been remiss in talking about so far is just how important Hospeco Brands Group and the team have been to menstrual care initiatives. The role that we play in Period Partners and getting feminine hygiene products into the market free of cost for all women is truly important.”
Looking forward
For distributors and facility directors, the advantage of Hospeco Brands Group’s model is clear: Fewer vendors to manage, bundled offers that reduce friction, and a single source that can solve for cross-category needs. For Hospeco Brands Group, the next step is to scale those gains while preserving legacy product categories and continuing to invest in advocacy, quality, and distribution capabilities.
“We see nothing but growth, opportunity, and doing our best, again, to bring these essential products to market,” Moore said. “Hospeco has been a brand in this industry since 1919, and we really harness what the legacy has been to who we’re going to be in the future.”
It’s a tidy ambition: Build modern scale without losing the trust that older brands earned. If Hospeco Brands Group can deliver on both—precision where it matters, heart where customers remember it—then the company’s promise of a single, trusted source of supply might prove to be more than consolidation. It could serve as an operating model for the next generation of cleaning industry procurement.
Jeff Cross is the media director for ISSA, which publishes three print media brands. He can be reached at [email protected] or 740-973-4236.
Sidebar
BONUS VIDEO CONTENT:
Screenshot
