McLane history

McLane's, as the store was called, was successful from the outset, and by 1895 McLane had doubled the size of his store and added a receiving platform.

When Rotan was bought out by another company in 1903, the wholesale business in that building was shut down.

The company performed well over the next decade, and by 1912 McLane had 12 people working in his office.

In 1913 McLane opened a second warehouse, located in the nearby town of Caldwell.

The company bought its first two trucks in 1915.

A third building, a garage for servicing the company's growing fleet of trucks, was added to the complex in 1919.

Central Texas was hit with a series of alternating floods and droughts that devastated its agricultural economy during the 1920s.

In 1921 Drayton McLane, Robert's son, joined the company on a full-time basis.

By 1937, though, with the United States economy well on its way to recovery, McLane's annual sales had reached $440,000.

The $3 million sales barrier was surpassed in 1957, and Drayton McLane became president of the Texas Wholesale Grocers Association the following year.

Meanwhile, Drayton McLane, Sr., was elected president of the United States Wholesale Grocers Association in 1963.

By 1964 McLane had about 40 stores in its program and had acquired the franchise rights to market products under the Shopworth and Valu-Mart trade names.

In 1968 McLane achieved another important breakthrough, this time in its supermarket business, when it signed a franchise agreement to distribute merchandise under the Red & White label in 23 Texas counties.

By 1974 company sales had skyrocketed to $51 million.

McLane/Northwest was established in Tacoma, Washington, in 1980.

In 1981 McLane Information Systems, the company's data processing operation, became its own division.

Yet another regional division, McLane/Midwest, was launched in 1989 in Carmi, Illinois.

In 1990, when Drayton received a call from Sam Walton announcing a trip to Temple, it seemed natural considering their relationship.

In 1992, one of McLane’s first and perhaps most notorious purchase was the Houston Astros baseball club.

In 1993 the company recorded sales of $6.3 billion, including $2.5 million in business with parent company Wal-Mart.