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Founded in 1927, W.W. Grainger originally distributed various motors via a mail-order catalog. Over the course of the 20th century, the firm expanded into new industrial product categories and launched its first digital catalog 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 catalogs of MRO supplies to smaller businesses. Grainger has operations throughout the world but primarily generates sales within the US.

GE Aerospace is the global leader in designing, manufacturing, and servicing commercial aircraft turbine engines, along with partner Safran in their CFM joint venture. With its massive global installed base of nearly 80,000 commercial and military engines, GE Aerospace earns most of its profits on recurring service revenue of that equipment, which operates for decades. GE Aerospace is the remaining core business of the company formed in 1892 with historical ties to American inventor Thomas Edison; General Electric became a storied conglomerate, with peak revenue of $130 billion in 2000, until it spun off its appliance, finance, healthcare, and wind and power businesses between 2016 and 2024.