W.B. Mason

East facing view of W.B. Mason Headquarters located in the Smith, Bay State Block, and Howard Tolman Buildings[6]
Centre Street Brockton, Massachusetts
(September 2011)

W.B. Mason was founded in 1898 by William Betts Mason in Brockton, Massachusetts, and its corporate headquarters remain in Brockton. 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 expanded its sales offerings to include office supplies.

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 to the business and the company reached nearly a million dollars in sales by Greene's death in 1973. The Greene's son Steve took over leadership of the company.

In 1983, Steve Greene and his brother, John Greene, took over ownership from their mother and invited long standing employee, Leo Meehan, to join in ownership of the company. In 1993, Steve Greene replaced his mother Helen Greene as the Chairman of the Board of Directors. At this point, the company's sales were $20 million.

Upon Greene's appointment to the board, Leo Meehan became the President and CEO of the company. Under Meehan, the company adopted a new corporate strategy focusing on local service, personalized sales, and free delivery. 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 international delivery.[7] W.B. Mason is currently owned by the Greene and Meehan families.[8]

Mason family grave at Union Cemetery in Brockton, MA.

W.B. Mason's original storefront above the Brockton Enterprise.

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, to live with Janet's brother Arthur J. C. Bettridge. Mason's first occupation was as a counter maker and trimmer in Brockton.[9]

He married his first wife Clara W. Belcher of Randolph, Massachusetts in 1892.[10] 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.[11] 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. W.B. Mason continues to manufacture its own rubber stamps today. In December 1905, Mason married his second wife, Marcena D. Horton of Bristol, Rhode Island.[12] She ran 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. He was buried at Union Cemetery, a half mile from W.B. Mason headquarters. He left no children.

W.B. Mason provides products for the workplace. On www.wbmason.com the primary product lines include office and school supplies, paper, janitorial supplies, furniture, food and break room supplies, technology and electronics, food service, and custom print.

W.B. Mason also provides the following services:

• Interior design and contract furniture[13]
• Discount furniture[14]
• Custom products (print, ad specialty, apparel)[15]

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.[23]