W.B. Mason - Wikipedia

W.B. Mason is a privately held American office products dealer headquartered in Brockton, Massachusetts. The company was founded in 1898 and has been family owned ever since. W.B. Mason has over 60 distribution centers across the United States. The company has more than 3,600 employees, including 800 sales representatives. W.B. Mason leases 1100 delivery trucks from Ryder, and services more than 300,000 businesses.[4][5] W.B. Mason is the largest purchaser of goods from Essendant.[6][7]

History
W.B. Mason was founded in 1898 by William Betts Mason in Brockton, Massachusetts. Its world headquarters still remain in Brockton to this day. The company started as a business that sold printed products, engraved products, and rubber stamps.

As the city of Brockton expanded in the early 20th century, largely due to the shoe industry, W.B. Mason, too, expanded its sales offerings to include office supplies.

W.B. Mason has continued as a family owned and operated business since its founding. William Betts Mason ran the company until his death in 1912. The Mason family continued to oversee the company until the 1920s under William's wife, Marcena. In the late 1920s W.B. Mason was sold to an employee and Brockton businessman, Samuel Kovner, who started his career out by sweeping the floors at W.B. Mason as a boy.

Under Kovner, the company reached sales of $243,000. In 1963 Kovner sold the company to his daughter and son-in-law, Helen and Joseph Greene. The Greenes added furniture sales to the company's selection and the W.B. Mason Company reached nearly a million dollars in sales upon Mr. Greene's passing in 1973. After his death, their son Steve Greene took over leadership of the company. In 1983 Steve Greene and his brother, John Greene, officially took over ownership from their mother. They invited the two top sales representatives, Leo Meehan and Thomas Golden to join the ownership group. By 1993, under Steve Greene's leadership, the company grew to $20 million in sales. In 1993 Steve Greene replaced his mother Helen Greene as the Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Upon Greene's appointment to the board, Leo Meehan became the President and CEO of the company. Under Meehan's guidance, the company adopted a new corporate strategy focused on localized service, personalized solutions, and free delivery. Under this new model, W.B. Mason reached sales of $247 million by 2001. Ten years later, in 2011, the company reached $1 billion in sales. In November 2013, W.B. Mason partnered with Lyreco to provide worldwide delivery options to multi-national customers.[8]

Founder
William Betts Mason was born in Auckland, New Zealand in 1865. After his father's death in 1871, he immigrated to the United States with his grandmother Agnes Dunn Bettridge, mother Janet C. Mason (née Bettridge) and sisters Sarah, Eliza, and Eadith Mason. In 1872 his family moved to Brockton, at the time known as North Bridgewater,[9] to live with Janet's brother Arthur J. C. Bettridge. Mason's first occupation was as a counter maker and trimmer in Brockton.[10]

He married his first wife Clara W. Belcher of Randolph, Massachusetts in 1892.[11] He continued to work in the counter making field until 1893, at which point he went to work for S.W.S. Howard, a local printing company.[12] In 1896 he left S.W.S. Howard and went into business for himself, making specialty brass plates, checks, and rubber stamps.

In 1898 Mason founded the W.B. Mason Company as a rubber stamp and stencil company. Still to this day, W.B. Mason manufactures its own rubber stamps. In December 1905, Mason married his second wife, Marcena D. Horton of Bristol, Rhode Island.[13] She would go on to run the company from the time of Mason's death in 1912 until Samuel Kovner's acquisition of the company in the late 1920s.

Mason died in 1912. During his life, William Betts Mason sang around Brockton in the Gerrish Male Barbershop Quartet, and was a member of the Brockton-based Paul Revere Lodge of Freemasons. His final resting place is a half mile from W.B. Mason world headquarters at Union Cemetery on Centre Street in Brockton. Mason had no children in either marriage.

Advertising
In 1986 the company introduced its slogan, "Who But W.B. Mason". Later, the slogan was combined with a portrait from the 1890s of founder William Betts Mason to synthesize their current corporate logo. The logo features two U.S. flags flanking the portrait of W.B. Mason. The flag on the right has 50 stars to represent the current state of the union, but the one on the left shows only 45 stars, the configuration at the time of the company's founding in 1898. In 1997 W.B. Mason began advertising on television. Its inaugural commercial was played during the 1997 Super Bowl. Besides their commercials, their fully decorated trucks and baseball park signage serve as W.B. Mason's primary forms of advertising. Both their trucks and baseball park signage have become an important part of their brand and have been in many movies and local network television.

Movies With W.B. Mason Advertisements
W.B. Mason Truck
Elf, RIPD, In Her Shoes, In Good Company, Sharknado 2, Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger

W.B. Mason Baseball Stadium Sign
Ted, Minority Report, Fever Pitch, Adjustment Bureau, Moneyball, PS I Love You

W.B. Mason Brand Paper Box
Spotlight, Edge of Darkness, Definitely, Maybe

Sponsorships
Baseball
W.B. Mason is the "Official Office Products Supplier" to the Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Pittsburgh Pirates, Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Indians, Miami Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays and Boston College. W.B. Mason has its corporate logo displayed throughout all eight teams' home ballparks: Fenway Park in Boston, Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Yankee Stadium and Citi Field in New York, PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Progressive Field in Cleveland, and Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore. In 2003 W.B. Mason placed its first ball park advertisement on the Green Monster at Fenway Park; this was the first advertisement painted on the Green Monster since 1947.[14]

Philanthropy
Projects
In June 2017 W.B. Mason announced a $10 million donation toward the Leo J. Meehan School of Business at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts. Meehan, president and CEO of W.B. Mason, is an alumnus of the college. This was the second largest donation in the school's history. The business school will open in August 2019. It will house Stonehill’s accounting, finance, international business, management, marketing, economics and healthcare administration programs.[15] Stonehill College is located less than five miles from W.B. Mason world headquarters in Brockton.

In 2007 W.B. Mason donated $1 million toward the Helen Greene Cardiac Catheterization Suite at local Brockton Hospital. The cardiac suite is equipped to perform Intravascular Ultrasounds, AngioJets, Radial Stenting, Advanced X-Rays, and more. The suite was named after Helen Greene, who was a former owner, and is the mother of current Chairman Steve Greene and President of the Office Products Division John Greene.[16]

W.B. Mason was a platinum benefactor in the opening of the Trinity Catholic Academy in Brockton, Massachusetts.[17] Trinity Catholic Academy is the amalgamation of the schools of three Catholic parishes in Brockton. St. Edward, St. Casimir, and Sacred Heart Parishes operated independent Catholic schools in the greater Brockton area that were faced with declining enrollment, deteriorating facilities, and financial troubles.[18] Trinity Catholic Academy was opened to preserve the option of Catholic education for the greater Brockton community.

W.B. Mason was the primary donor to W.B. Mason Stadium, Stonehill College's football, lacrosse, field hockey, and track & field stadium. W.B. Mason Stadium opened for the 2005 season.[19]

Locations
W.B. Mason has over 60 distribution centers in the United States, and provides nationwide delivery services to its customers. Through its partnership with Lyreco it has worldwide distribution capabilities.