W. W. Grainger
"For the ones who get it done."
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| Public | |
| Traded as | : GWW S&P 500 Component |
| Industry | Industrial supply distribution |
| Founded | 1927 |
| Founder | William Wallace Grainger |
| Headquarters | Lake Forest, Illinois, United States |
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Number of locations
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Key people
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James T. Ryan, Chairman of the board D.G. Macpherson, CEO |
| Revenue |  $9.97 billion (2015) |
 $1.30 billion (2015) |
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| $769.00 million (2015) |
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| Website | www |
James T. Ryan, Chairman of the board
W. W. Grainger, Inc. is a Fortune 500 industrial supply company founded in 1927 in Chicago. The Company is a business-to-business distributor of products used to maintain, repair and operate facilities. Approximately 3 million businesses and institutions worldwide rely on Grainger for products such as safety gloves, ladders, motors and janitorial supplies, along with services like inventory management and technical support. These customers represent a broad collection of industries including healthcare, manufacturing, government and hospitality. They place orders online, with mobile devices, over the phone and at local branches. More than 4,800 key manufacturers supply Grainger with 1.5 million products stocked in Grainger’s distribution centers and branches.
Grainger 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 . 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 to its for 44 years. The company has grown significantly since becoming public and passed $1 billion in annual sales in 1984 and $5 billion in sales in 2004.
In 1996, Grainger launched its first website. The website was a simple page which linked to an electronic catalog. In 2015, 41 percent, or $4.1 billion, of Grainger’s revenue came from online channels, making it the 11th largest e-retailer in North America, according to Internet Retailer.
The company currently has operations in the U.S., Canada, Latin America, Japan, China and multiple locations in Europe. Grainger established a presence in Japan by acquiring a majority share of Japanese industrial supplier Monotaro in 2009. In September 2015, Grainger acquired Cromwell, the largest independent MRO distributor in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1970 and headquartered in Leicester, England, Cromwell serves more than 35,000 industrial and manufacturing customers worldwide with more than 80,000 industrial products.
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Wikipedia