Who Owns Uline?

Uline began in 1980 in the Uihleins' Lake Forest, Illinois, basement, selling a single product: the H-101 carton sizer, a tool for cutting boxes down to size. Startup capital came from Richard's father, Edgar Uihlein Jr., whose family wealth traced to the Schlitz brewery. The early model was a mail-order catalog shipping supplies to businesses that needed boxes, tape, and mailers faster than local suppliers could deliver.

The company expanded steadily through the 1980s and 1990s, thickening its catalog and building regional warehouses to promise same-day or next-day ground delivery. It relocated its headquarters to Waukegan, Illinois, then in 2010 moved to a purpose-built campus in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, near the Illinois border, drawing both state incentive packages and criticism over the move's politics.

Uline's model stayed remarkably consistent as e-commerce transformed distribution: a massive print catalog, now over 850 pages, mailed to purchasing managers, backed by warehouses that eventually exceeded 30 million square feet and guaranteed rapid delivery of packaging, janitorial, retail, and material-handling supplies. Online ordering now dominates transactions, but the catalog remains the brand's signature.

By 2025 the company counted approximately 9,000 to 9,800 employees across 14 locations in the US, Mexico, and Canada, more than 43,000 products, and estimated revenue of about $8 billion. It has never acquired a competitor of size and has grown entirely organically.