GWW vs EW Comparison

Founded in 1927, W.W. Grainger originally distributed various motors via a mail-order catalogue. Over the course of the 20th century, the firm expanded into new industrial product categories and launched its first digital catalogue in 1995. Today, the company organizes itself into two segments focused on different customer bases. Its larger segment, high-touch solutions, offers a vast array of maintenance, repair, and operations, or MRO, supplies and bespoke inventory management services to larger businesses. Its smaller segment, endless assortment, operates two online platforms, Zoro and MonotaRO, that offer comprehensive catalogues of MRO supplies to smaller businesses. Grainger has operations throughout the world but primarily generates sales within the US.

Spun off from Baxter International in 2000, Edwards Lifesciences designs, manufactures, and markets a range of medical devices and equipment for advanced stages of structural heart disease. It has established itself as a leader across key products, including surgical tissue heart valves, transcatheter aortic valves, and transcatheter mitral and tricuspid valve technologies. The firm derives about 60% of its total sales from outside the US.