National Service Industries, Inc. (Atlanta, Ga.) Records

National Service Industries, Inc. was founded in 1962 with the merger of two established Atlanta companies, National Linen Service (NLS) and ZEP Manufacturing Company. National Linen Service, founded in 1919, had grown into the largest textile rental company in the United States by the late 1950s, having acquired similar companies in twenty-four states. To avoid anti-trust action by the United States government, National Linen signed a consent agreement in 1956 and agreed not to acquire additional linen companies for ten years. National president Milton Weinstein countered this restraint by diversifying. On June 30, 1962, National Linen merged with ZEP, a chemical company founded in 1937 by Mandle Zaban and now headed by his son Erwin. Two years later National Linen acquired Atlanta Envelope Company and changed its name to National Service Industries, Inc. (NSI). In the ensuing years NSI acquired North Bros. Co., in 1966; Selig Chemical Industries in 1968; Lithonia Lighting Company in 1969; Marketing Services in 1970; and Block Industries in 1972.

In 1962, sales totaled $68 million and in 1984 they exceeded $1 billion. The company ranked 260th in sales among the largest United States industrial companies on the 1988 Fortune 500 list, with sales of $1.4 billion.

In 1989, NSI relocated from its home office on Peachtree and 14th Streets to a new corporate headquarters at Pershing Point. Over the next decade NSI continued to grow, but in 2001, with stock prices stagnant, the company was broken apart.