Workers at Medline Industries assemble Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) kits to be shipped out to various health facilities at their warehouse in Mundelein, Illinois, U.S., on Monday, Oct. 20, 2014. The personal protection kits, which typically include a hooded body suit, face shield, boot covers, mask, gloves, Epi-clenz hand sanitizer and a biohazard bag, can be used for healthcare professionals that are treating patients with the Ebola virus. Photographer: Tim Boyle/Bloomberg

© 2014 Bloomberg Finance LP

Medline, one of the world’s biggest makers of personal protective equipment, is considering filing for an initial public offering as early as this fall, according to several reports.

Medline, which generates more than $23 billion in annuals sales, has in the past boasted of more than a half century of double-digit percentage sales growth under the billionaire Mills family as well as its most recent private equity owners. Bloomberg News was the first to report the potential IPO, which could raise about $5 billion.

In 2021, large private equity firms managed by Blackstone, Carlyle and Hellman & Friedman bought a majority stake in the family-owned medical product maker Medline, which has grown rapidly making personal protective equipment during the Covid-19 pandemic. Medline revenue eclipsed $21 billion in sales in 2021, adding more than 230 new healthcare provider and health system accounts worth nearly $2 billion in 2021 sales as Covid-19 raged around the world, the company said at the time.

Founded in 1966, Medline, based in the northern Chicago suburb of Northfield, says it has had six decades of consecutive sales growth and 43,000 employees worldwide and now has more than $23 billion in annual sales. Medline makes everything from masks, surgical gowns and drapes to sanitizing products and biohazard bags.