Sidney Jacobson (businessman)
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Sidney Jacobson | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1918 |
| Died | June 21, 2005 (age 87) |
| Occupation | businessman |
| Known for | founder of MSC Industrial Direct |
| Spouse | Bernice Jacobson |
| Children | Mitchell Jacobson Marjorie Jacobson Gershwind |
Sidney Jacobson (1918–2005) was an American businessman who founded industrial equipment distributor MSC Industrial Direct and pioneered the use of computerized inventory management and order processing.
Jacobson was born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn.[1] At the age of 16, he took a job as a machinist[2] and in 1941, he founded the Sid Tool Company in Little Italy, Manhattan with $1,000 of his own money and $3,000 borrowed from his mother.[2] Sid Tool sold cutting tools to New York City machine shops.[2]
After serving in the Army Air Force during World War II[1] leaving the business first, in the hands of his brother (until he too was drafted) and then his sister while he was gone.[2] He returned to a company with $36,000 in annual sales[1] where he soon landed exclusive contracts with Grumman Corporation and Republic Aircraft.[2] In 1955, he moved the company to Plainview, New York, closer to his home in Great Neck, New York.[2] Sensing that he was overly reliant on the two aerospace companies (they were 90% of sales in the 1960s), he launched a catalog business to diversify his customer base.[2] His colorful catalog (known as "The Big Book") combined with an expansive portfolio of lower cost imported tools purchased at a discount (Sid Tools was the first company in the industry to widely import foreign-manufactured tools) propelled catalog sales which soon exceeded the company's regular sales.[2] After an inventory problem where he ran out of stock of a critical item, Jacobson invested heavily in computerized inventory management and order processing, the first to do so in the industry.[1]
In 1970, Sid Tool purchased the cutting tool marketer, Manhattan Supply Company and changed the name of the company to MSC Industrial Direct, using the initials of Manhattan Supply. In 1978,[2] MSC became one of the first distributors to launch a fully integrated Quality Assurance Department.[1] In 1976, his son Mitchell, a lawyer, joined the company and was tasked with seeking out the best practices at other industrial suppliers to implement at MSC.[1] In 1982, Mitchell replaced his father as president of the company.[1] The company went public in 1995.[3] MSC went on to become one of the largest industrial equipment distributors in the world with $1.87 billion in sales in 2010.