W. W. Grainger, Inc. is a Fortune 500 industrial supply company founded in 1927 in Chicago. Grainger's catalog includes such offerings as motors, lighting, material handling, fasteners, plumbing, tools, and safety supplies. Revenue is generally from business-to-business sales rather than retail sales.
History
The company was founded by William Wallace Grainger in 1927 in Chicago, Illinois. He established the company to provide supplies for businesses. The business was incorporated as W. W. Grainger, Inc., in 1928. Sales in the early days were generated primarily through mail order via post cards and a catalog. The MotorBook, as the catalog was originally called, was the basis for today's Grainger catalog. Grainger headquarters are now located in Lake Forest, Illinois. By 1936 Grainger established 15 branches to improve customer service.
In 1967, Grainger became a publicly traded company. Grainger is a profitable corporation and has increased dividends to its shareholders for thirty six consecutive years. The company has grown consistently since becoming public and has passed US$1,000,000,000 in annual sales in 1984 and US$5,000,000,000 in sales in 2004.
In 1996, Grainger launched its first website. The website was a simple page which linked to an electronic catalog.
Operations
The company is currently in the midst of an expansion, which includes the remodeling of existing locations as well as the company's entry into the Chinese market. Grainger also has a presence in Japan by acquiring a majority share of Japanese industrial supplier Monotaro in 2009. In addition, Grainger opened a research office at Research Park, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2014. Grainger is expanding their product offering, in 2008 their new catalog featured over 183,000 products, and customers could purchase over 350,000 products on Grainger.com. In 2010, the catalog carried over 400,000 products, and customers could purchase over 900,000 products on Grainger.com. This is partly due to feedback from customers that Grainger should carry an even broader supply of products.
A unique aspect that sets W. W. Grainger apart from other industrial supply companies is that they have an extensive, on-site, US-based technical product support for all of their products. Their technical product support specialists have hands-on experience and training, and have the ability to assist with the correct product selection, application assistance, installation and troubleshooting.
Acquisitions
- September 1, 2015 - Cromwell Group Holdings (UK) Ltd
- December 3, 2013 - Safety Solutions Incorporated
- August 23, 2013 - E&R Industrial Sales Inc
- December 17, 2012 - Techni-tool, Inc. of Worcester, Pennsylvania
- August 31, 2011 - Fabory Group
- October 14, 2010 - SafetyCertified
- November 18, 2009 - Alliance Energy Solutions
- October 14, 2009 - Imperial Supplies
- April 3, 2012 - Anfreixo
W. W. Grainger, Inc. supplies facilities maintenance and other related products in North America and Asia. The company operates in three segments, Branch-based Distribution, Acklands-Grainger Inc. (Canada) and GHC Specialty Brands.
The Branch-based Distribution businesses include Grainger's Industrial Supply division; Grainger's Export division; Grainger's Global Sourcing division; Grainger S.A. de C.V. (Mexico); Grainger Caribe, Inc. (Puerto Rico); Grainger Colombia (Colombia) and Grainger China, LLC China Distribution. Grainger distributes various supplies, such as material handling, safety and security, cleaning and maintenance, pumps and plumbing, electrical, lighting, ventilation, tools, metal working, fluid power, heating and air-conditioning products, motors, and power transmissions.
Acklands - Grainger Inc. is Canada's leading broad-line distributor of industrial, fleet and safety products.
Grainger serves customers through a network of approximately 369 branches, 15 distribution centers, numerous catalogs and direct mail pieces and several web sites. W. W. Grainger, Inc. was incorporated in 1927 and is based in Lake Forest, Illinois.
Awards and honors
Grainger was named by Fortune magazine as one of the top 100 companies to work for in 2013, citing the company's generous profit-sharing plan, where employees with five years of service had 20% of their pay added to their retirement plan.
Whistleblower lawsuit
In 2008, Grainger came under public scrutiny for allegedly over charging government customers who had pre-existing fixed-price contracts. In a whistleblower lawsuit, former district sales manager Brian Holbrook alleged the company repeatedly over billed the U.S. government on its supply contracts. The lawsuit asked that Holbrook be awarded 15 percent to 25 percent "of the proceeds of the action or settlement of the claim" for his role in the case. In the U.S., whistleblowers are often entitled to a financial cut of funds received as part of a settlement of penalty from a legal proceeding. Grainger eventually settled with the US federal government for $70 million (US) while admitting no wrongdoing.
See also
- Fastenal
- Interline Brands
- McMaster-Carr
- MSC Industrial Direct
- Global Industrial
- Industrybuying
References
External links
- Official website
