McMaster-Carr Supply Company is a private American supplier of hardware, tools, raw materials, industrial materials, and maintenance equipment. They function as a

business-to-business Business-to-business (B2B or, in some countries, BtoB) refers to trade and commercial activity where a business sees other businesses as its customer base. This typically occurs when: * A business sources materials for its production process for ...

company. The company was founded in 1901 and is based in Elmhurst,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

, with distribution centers in Robbinsville,

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

;

Santa Fe Springs Santa Fe Springs (''Santa Fe'', Spanish for "Holy Faith") is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is one of the Gateway Cities of southeast Los Angeles County. The population was 19,219 at the 2020 census, up from 16,22 ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

;

Douglasville The city of Douglasville is the county seat of and largest city in Douglas County, Georgia, United States. , the city had a population of 34,650, up from 30,961 in 2010 United States census, 2010 and 20,065 in 2000 United States census, 2000. ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

and

Aurora An aurora ( aurorae or auroras), also commonly known as the northern lights (aurora borealis) or southern lights (aurora australis), is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly observed in high-latitude regions (around the Arc ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

. A new

distribution center A distribution center for a set of products is a warehouse or other specialized building, often with refrigeration or air conditioning, which is stocked with products (goods) to be redistributed to retailers, to wholesalers, or directly to c ...

and regional

headquarters Headquarters (often referred to as HQ) notes the location where most or all of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. The term is used in a wide variety of situations, including private sector corporations, non-profits, mil ...

began construction in May 2024 in

Fort Worth Fort Worth is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, covering nearly into Denton County, Texas, Denton, Johnson County, Texas, Johnson, Parker County, Texas, Parker, and Wise County, Te ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, with completion expected in 2027.

History

The company was founded in 1901 at 160 East Lake street in Chicago as the McMaster-Davis Supply Company. Starting with $50,000 in investor capital, its founders were T.J. McMaster, a former stationary engineer, and F.C. Davis, who had been a chief engineer in the U.S. Navy. In 1904, an attorney with a background in mechanical engineering named Walter S. Carr purchased the company. As early as 1908, the name of the company had been changed from McMaster-Davis to McMaster-Carr. Harry and James Channon, the sons of Henry Channon the founder of the H. Channon company, a large Chicago distributor of maritime and steam engine supplies, later purchased the company.

Catalog

In 1908 the company printed and copyrighted its first catalog, at 506 pages in length. It releases its current catalog annually. The distinctive yellow print edition of the catalog is limited in distribution, sent primarily to established customers.

Website

McMaster-Carr's website ranked third among e-commerce sites in a 2002 study performed at Stanford University about trust and credibility, just behind

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and

Barnes & Noble Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. The company operates approximately 600 retail stores across the United States. Barnes & Noble operates mainly through its B ...

. The site intersperses design tips and explanations of material properties within product offerings. Web developers in social media recognized the website for its heavy optimization towards speed and performance, even though it uses outdated

JavaScript JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language and core technology of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. Ninety-nine percent of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior. Web browsers have ...

libraries.

Mobile phone app

The McMaster app was released in May 2013 for the

iPad The iPad is a brand of tablet computers developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple that run the company's mobile operating systems iOS and later iPadOS. The IPad (1st generation), first-generation iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010. ...

and March 2014 for Android devices.

Awards

In 2015 McMaster-Carr was recognized by customers, in a survey by B2B business reviewer VendOp, as one of the top B2B vendors in the United States in multiple categories.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:McMaster-Carr Industrial supply companies Privately held companies based in Illinois Business services companies established in 1901 1901 establishments in Illinois Companies based in DuPage County, Illinois