type public nyse gww s & p 500 component industry industrial supply distribution founded 1927 1927 founder william wallace grainger headquarters lake forest illinois united states number of locations united states 330 1 canada 165 1 key people james t. ryan president ceo and chairman of the board revenue us 9.97 billion 2015 1 operating income us 1.30 billion 2015 1 net income us 769.00 million 2015 1 website www.grainger.com 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 . contents 1 history 2 operations 3 corporate social responsibility 4 awards and honors 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit 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 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 44 years . 2 the company has grown significantly since becoming public and 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 . 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 . 3 operations edit the company currently when 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 . 4 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 . 5 a unique aspect that sets w. w. grainger apart from other industrial supply companies is that the company has 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 . corporate social responsibility edit grainger is committed to its corporate social responsibility efforts which include operating responsibly valuing its people sustaining the environment and serving its communities . 6 awards and honors edit 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 . 7 grainger was recognized as one of the best suppliers of 2015 in multiple categories . 8 see also edit companies portal fastenal interline brands mcmaster carr msc industrial direct global industrial industrybuying references edit a b c d e w. w. grainger 10 k . 2016 fact book . w. w. grainger . retrieved 2016 06 09 . 2016 fact book . w. w. grainger . retrieved 2016 06 09 . grainger completes tender offer bid ; achieves 53 % stake in monotaro co. ltd. press release . w. w. grainger . september 14 2009 . retrieved 2014 03 02 . 2016 fact book . w. w. grainger . retrieved 2016 06 09 . grainger social responsibility report . grainger . retrieved 2016 06 02 . grainger best companies to work for 2013 fortune . money.cnn.com . 2013 02 04 . retrieved 2014 03 02 . vendop s best vendors of 2015 . external links edit official website v t e illinois based corporations fortune 500 corporations by size 2013 walgreens boots alliance archer daniels midland boeing caterpillar inc. state farm insurance abbott laboratories sears holdings united continental holdings deere & company mondel z international allstate mcdonald s exelon kraft heinz illinois tool works baxter international navistar international rr donnelley cdw hillshire brands discover financial w. w. grainger motorola solutions dover corporation tenneco officemax ingredion anixter cf industries holdings telephone and data systems united stationers old republic international other major public companies alphabetically abbvie acco brands accretive health allscripts amcol international corporation arthur j. gallagher & co. beam inc. brookdale senior living brunswick corporation calamos career education corporation catamaran corporation cboe holdings cme group cna financial continental materials corporation equity residential fortune brands home & security general growth properties hospira hyatt hotels corp. integrys energy group jones lang lasalle kemper corporation nalco holding company nicor rli corp. rubicon technology stericycle titan international tribune media tronc tootsie roll industries ulta beauty usg corporation westell zebra technologies other major private companies alphabetically ace hardware baker & mckenzie blue cross blue shield association claire s country financial danfoss power solutions dot foods eby brown electro motive diesel flex n gate follett corporation gardner denver grant thornton llp health care service corporation heico cos. hendrickson international hub international jenner & block kirkland & ellis marmon group mayer brown medline industries molex nestl frozen pizza osi group pactiv reyes holdings ryerson inc. sidley austin skidmore owings & merrill solo cup company tellabs transunion true value us foods wirtz corporation related topics breweries in illinois companies in the chicago metropolitan area food manufacturers of chicago newspapers in illinois retailers on the magnificent mile wineries in illinois retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title w. w. grainger & oldid 741952164 categories companies listed on the new york stock exchangeindustrial supply companiescompanies established in 1927companies based in lake forest illinoishidden categories official website different in wikidata and wikipediapages using infobox company with unsupported parametersvague or ambiguous time from december 2015 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages deutschfran ais edit links this page was last modified on 30 september 2016 at 18 36 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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