Who Owns W.B. Mason?

William Betts Mason founded the company in 1898 in Brockton, Massachusetts, then a booming center of American shoe manufacturing. The original business sold rubber stamps, stencils, and printed products to shoe factories that needed to mark cartons and products.

As Brockton's shoe industry faded, Mason adapted. The company broadened its catalog into general office supplies, paper, and business printing, following the paperwork needs of New England businesses rather than any single industry. Through the mid-twentieth century it remained a modest regional stationer.

The modern W.B. Mason took shape under Leo Meehan's leadership beginning in the 1980s and 1990s. The company adopted a distinctive model: localized service, personal account relationships, aggressively low prices, and free next-day delivery on its own fleet of colorfully decorated trucks. That combination let a regional player win accounts from national chains.

Sales reached $247 million in 2001 and crossed $1 billion in 2011. The product range expanded well beyond stationery into janitorial and sanitation supplies, break room and coffee service, foodservice products, furniture, shipping and packaging, safety equipment, school supplies, and custom printing.

Sports marketing became a signature. In 2003 the company placed the first advertisement on Fenway Park's Green Monster since 1947, becoming the Official Office Products Supplier of the Boston Red Sox. It later added the same designation for the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies, and its trucks and ballpark signage made a B2B distributor into a recognizable consumer-facing name.

In 2020 the pandemic emptied offices and cut revenue sharply. W.B. Mason responded by launching home delivery and a consumer-facing website for the first time, delivering office products to remote workers. Headcount fell from roughly 4,000 before the pandemic to about 1,900 at the low point, then rebuilt as offices reopened. Revenue recovered toward approximately $1.8 to $1.9 billion.