Compare GWW & MPLX Stocks: Price Trends, ML Decisions, Charts, Trends, Technical Analysis and more.
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.
MPLX is a partnership that owns both pipelines and gathering and processing assets with extensive holdings in the Appalachian region. The asset base is made up of pipeline assets dropped down from Marathon Petroleum, its sponsor, and gathering and processing assets from MarkWest, which it acquired in 2015. MPLX also acquired Andeavor Logistics in 2019.