McMaster-Carr Supply Company is a private American supplier of hardware, tools, raw materials, industrial materials, and maintenance equipment. 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. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

, with distribution centers in

Robbinsville, New Jersey Robbinsville Township is a township in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. The township is part of the New York Metropolitan area as defined by the United States Census Bureau, but directly borders the Philadelphia metropolitan area and ...

;

Santa Fe Springs, California 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 16,223 at the 2010 census, down from 17,4 ...

; Douglasville, Georgia and

Aurora, Ohio Aurora is a city in Portage County, Ohio, United States. It is a suburb of Cleveland and Akron, Ohio, and is co-extensive with, and formed from, the former township of Aurora, which was formed from the Connecticut Western Reserve The Connecti ...

History

The company was founded in 1901 at 160 East Lake street in Chicago as the McMaster-Davis Supply Company. Started with $50,000 in investor capital, its founders were T.J. McMaster, a former

stationary engineer A stationary engineer (also called an operating engineer, power engineer or process operator) is a technically trained professional who operates, troubleshoots and oversees industrial machinery and equipment that provide and utilize energy in vari ...

, 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. It is a Fortune 1000 company and the bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. As of July 7, 2020, the company operates 614 retail stores across all 50 U. ...

. The site intersperses design tips and explanations of material properties within product offerings.

Mobile phone app

The McMaster app was released in May 2013 for the

iPad The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating s ...

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.

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