Cintas Corporation (NASDAQ: CTAS) announced today that its uniform rental facility in Portsmouth, VA has received Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) Star certification from the Virginia Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The VPP Star certification is OSHA’s highest recognition for the practice of and commitment to exemplary occupational safety and health.

The Cintas uniform rental facility in Portsmouth is the ninth rental facility and the 12th companywide to receive Star designation. The facility’s 150 employee-partners, along with representatives from OSHA and community leaders, celebrated the honor with a flag raising ceremony and luncheon held at the facility in Portsmouth.

“It’s a great day when companies make it a part of their corporate culture to embrace safety and health in the workplace,” said Courtney Malveaux, commissioner of the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry. “To achieve VPP, safety must not only be top-down but bottom-up. Through the dedication and hard work of its management and employees, Cintas’ Portsmouth location has demonstrated leadership in the area of occupational safety and health.”

Cintas’ Portsmouth facility first began the VPP process in October of 2011. The designation required successful completion of a strict and rigorous audit and collaboration between all levels of management and employee-partners in order to create an environment of continuous safety improvement. With this distinction, Cintas Corporation in Portsmouth, VA becomes the 59th business in the Commonwealth of Virginia to receive the elite VPP “Star” status.

“The painstaking hard work of this group has not gone unnoticed—they have come further than we could have ever imagined when it came to safety excellence,” said Tim Jones, Group Vice President of the MidAtlantic Group, Cintas. “In the coming days, months or years, partners who want to recognize all they have achieved can look up to the flag waving outside this facility. However, if we want to honor all that’s gone into making this achievement reality, we should never take for granted the safety and well being of the people in this room today.”

Cintas Corporation has approximately 400 facilities throughout the world actively pursuing VPP recognition by OSHA or the equivalent under a similar certifying body. This includes operations in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico and Honduras.

About Cintas

Headquartered in Cincinnati, Cintas Corporation provides highly specialized services to businesses of all types primarily throughout North America. Cintas designs, manufactures and implements corporate identity uniform programs, and provides entrance mats, restroom supplies, tile and carpet cleaning, promotional products, first aid, safety, fire protection products and services and document management services for more than 1 million businesses. Cintas is a publicly held company traded over the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol CTAS, and is a component of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.