McMaster-Carr
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Industrial supply |
| Founded | 1901 |
| Headquarters | Elmhurst, Illinois |
Number of employees | 3,000[1] |
| Website | mcmaster.com |
McMaster-Carr Supply Company is a private American supplier of hardware, tools, raw materials, and maintenance equipment industrial materials. The company was founded in 1901 and is based in Elmhurst, Illinois, with distribution centers in Robbinsville, New Jersey; Santa Fe Springs, California; Douglasville, Georgia and Aurora, Ohio.[2][3]
History
The company was founded in 1901 at 160 East Lake street in Chicago as the McMaster-Davis Supply Company.[4][5] Started 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.[4][6] In 1904 an attorney with a background in mechanical engineering named Walter S. Carr purchased the company.[7] As early as 1908, the name of the company had been changed from McMaster-Davis to McMaster-Carr.[8][9]
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.[10]
Catalog
In 1908 the company printed and copyrighted its first catalog, at 506 pages in length.[11][9] It releases its current catalog annually.[12] The distinctive yellow print edition of the catalog is limited in distribution, sent primarily to established customers.[13] McMaster-Carr attempts to obscure the manufacturers and brand names of most products.
Website
McMaster-Carr's website is an example of link-rich design and good user interface.[14] The site intersperses design tips and explanations of material properties within product offerings. The site ranked third in a 2002 study performed at Stanford University about trust and credibility, just behind Amazon and Barnes & Noble.[15]
Mobile phone app
The McMaster app was released in May 2013 for the iPad[16] and March 2014 for Android tablets.
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.[17]
References
- ^ https://www.owler.com/company/mcmastercarr
- ^ "Company Overview of McMaster-Carr Supply Company". Bloomberg Business. Retrieved March 28, 2015.
- ^ "McMaster-Carr - Contact Us". Retrieved March 28, 2015.
- ^ a b "The Railway Age". 1901.
- ^ "Directory of Combination Export Managers". 1962.
- ^ "The International Steam Engineer". 1903.
- ^ "The National Engineer". 1904.
- ^ "Directory of Stationary Engineers of the States of Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin: Containing a List of Steam Plants, with Capacity and Name of Engineer in Charge; an Alphabetical List of Engineers in Chicago; Classified Telephone Directory of Manufacturers and Supply Houses; List of Associations, and Useful Information for the Engineer ..." Stationary Engineers Directory Company. March 3, 1908 – via Google Books.
- ^ a b "The Engineer: With which is Incorporated Steam Engineering". March 3, 1908 – via Google Books.
- ^ "Channon to Pay $450,000 to Two Sons he 'Fired'"". The Chicago Daily Tribune. Chicago, Illinois. July 11, 1919. p. 17.
- ^ "Catalog of Copyright Entries. Part 1. [A] Group 1. Books. New Series". March 3, 1908 – via Google Books.
- ^ LaPlace, Jules (August 28, 2013). "McMaster-Carr Catalog". AIGA. Retrieved March 28, 2015.
- ^ Sung, John (March 18, 2015). "Techronomicon: The McMaster-Carr Catalog". Highway1. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 28, 2015.
- ^ Spool, Jared M. (June 15, 2006). "Lifestyles of the Link-Rich Home Pages". User Interface Engineering. Retrieved March 28, 2015.
- ^ Fogg, B. J.; Soohoo, Cathy; Danielson, David; Marable, Leslie; Stanford, Julianne; Tauber, Ellen R. (November 11, 2002). "How Do People Evaluate a Web Site's Credibility?" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on June 13, 2010.
- ^ Edman, Lenore (June 18, 2013). "McMaster-Carr iPad App". Retrieved March 28, 2015.
- ^ "Unveiled: VendOp's Top 50 B2B Vendors List". www.vendop.com.