W.B. Mason - History

History

W.B. Mason was founded in 1898 by William Betts Mason in Brockton, Massachusetts, where its headquarters are still located.

William Betts Mason was born in Auckland, New Zealand in 1865. Upon his father's death in 1872 he immigrated to the United States with his American born mother and two sisters where they settled in his mother's home town of Brockton, Massachusetts. In the 1880s he began working in the printing and sign making trade and eventually became a master engraver .

In 1898, Mr. Mason founded W.B. Mason, a business which sold printing, engraved products and rubber stamps. As the shoe industry exploded in the early 20th century in Brockton (making the city a candidate for the shoe capital of the United States), growth in the city's business exploded and W.B. Mason added office supplies to the company's sales offering. Mr. Mason died in 1912 leaving a legacy of providing impeccable, personalized service on the sale of office products.

W.B. Mason continued to operate for the next thirty years by Mr. Mason's family members. In 1943 it was sold to a Brockton businessman, Samuel Kovner, who as a boy swept the W.B.Mason floors and worked his way up through the ranks.

Under Mr. Kovner the company reached sales of $243,000 by 1963 at which time it was sold to Mr. Kovner's daughter and son-in-law, Helen and Joseph Greene. Joseph Greene added furniture sales to the company's selection and the W.B. Mason Company reached nearly a million dollars in sales upon his death in 1973. After his death Helen Greene moved her son Steven Greene into the leadership position of the company and under his leadership the company grew to $20 million in sales by 1993.

The ownership changed hands in 1983 when Steven Greene and his brother John Greene took over the business from their mother and they invited their two top sales people, Thomas Golden and Leo Meehan, to join the ownership group.

Mr. Greene remained President until 1993 when he elected to assume the position of Chairman of the Board, replacing his mother Helen. Leo Meehan became the President and CEO as the company launched a new office supply initiative based on free, fast, and complete next-day delivery on company-owned trucks. W.B. Mason grew twelve-fold in the next eight years achieving sales of $247 million by 2001. The next ten years saw the company grow four-fold again and reach a billion dollars in sales in 2011.