Company History | History of the worlds largest distributor

Our company began in 1934 as the Brower Paper Company. In 1956, we merged with the Martin Paper Company and purchased a controlling interest in the National Paper Napkin Manufacturing Company, becoming the Martin-Brower Paper Company.

But what made 1956 such a pivotal year for our company is that it marked the beginning of our extraordinary relationship with McDonald’s. Ray Kroc selected the Martin-Brower Paper Company to supply the paper products to his very first restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois.

As McDonald’s grew, so did our company, and several acquisitions and consolidations followed. In 1964 we became known simply as The Martin-Brower Company, having dropped the word "Paper" from our name to better reflect our diverse range of products and services.

The McDonald’s relationship started in 1956.

In 1972, Martin-Brower was purchased by the Clorox Company. But the biggest news that year was our launch of the first customized distribution program to support McDonald’s "Total Supply" concept - in which a single distributor would supply the restaurants with frozen and dry goods, as well as paper products. This concept required us to operate from a McDonald’s-exclusive location with McDonald’s-exclusive rolling stock. Martin-Brower was awarded the first such program in the Baltimore, Maryland market, then more McDonald’s business in the Canadian market shortly after.

In 1997, The Martin-Brower Company was acquired by Reyes Holdings, L.L.C., an international leader in food and beverage distribution. Today, Martin-Brower serves over 8,000 McDonald’s stores worldwide.