W.B. Mason is a large
office supply contract retailer that competes with
Staples,
OfficeMax, and
Office Depot. W.B. Mason currently serves the
New England and
Mid-Atlantic areas of the
United States. They have nine distribution centers, roughly 1800 employees, 700 sales representatives, 200 delivery trucks, and over 100,000 customers.
Business facts
W.B. Mason is the official supplier of the
Boston Red Sox, the
Philadelphia Phillies, and the
New York Yankees. They sponsor the post-game show after Red Sox games on
NESN, and the 2-hour condensed replay of Yankee games on the
YES Network. W.B. Mason also has their corporate logo prominently displayed in all three teams' home ballparks:
Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia,
Yankee Stadium in The Bronx, New York, and on the
Green Monster at
Fenway Park in Boston.
Along with those sponsorships, W.B. Mason assisted with funding a brand new sports complex at Stonehill College in Easton, MA, and thus reserved naming rights as W.B. Mason Stadium. The special relationship on the collegiate level is due in large part to W.B. Mason's CEO, Leo Meehan, being an alumnus of the institution. A number of W.B. Mason television commercials have used the college as a filming location as well. The current owners live in the Greater Boston Area.
History
It was founded in
1898 by
William Betts Mason in
Brockton, Massachusetts, where its headquarters are still located. It began as a
rubber stamp company, which thrived in the Brockton
shoe industry. A year later, W.B. Mason introduced free delivery, using his horse-drawn wagon with his face painted on the side to cart product around downtown Brockton. In
1987, W.B. Mason grew to become the largest office supplies and office furniture company in Southeastern Massachusetts.
Advertising
Their best known slogan is "Who But W. B. Mason". Their logo features two U.S. flags flanking a portrait presumed to be W.B. Mason. It is interesting to note that the flag on the right has 50 stars but the one on the left shows only 45 stars. This is probably because when the company was established in 1898 there were only 45 states in the US.
External links