CHICAGO, Feb. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- The Catholic Materials Management
Alliance (CMMA), a leading health care industry purchasing organization, has
signed a three-year purchasing contract with W.W. Grainger, Inc. (NYSE: GWW),
North America's leading distributor of maintenance, repair, and operating
(MRO) supplies.  Under the terms of the agreement, Grainger has the potential
to capture expenditures by CMMA members estimated at more than $30 million
over the three-year period.
    "Our agreement helps Catholic health care facilities nationwide achieve
efficiencies through supplier consolidation and simplified purchasing
processes," says Wes Clark, Group President of Grainger.
    The contract provides CMMA members with access to products from Grainger
that represent the majority of a hospital's maintenance, housekeeping and
safety supply requirements not covered by existing CMMA contracts.
    Richard Orbis, Director of Equipment Procurement for CMMA, explains, "The
mission of CMMA is to provide comprehensive materials management programs
which support the health ministries of the sponsoring systems and their
members.  Our contract with Grainger fills gaps in CMMA's current contract
portfolio, providing access to a wide variety of products for our members
across the country."
    CMMA includes five Catholic health care system sponsors with combined
purchasing volume of $1.4 billion, representing 173 acute care hospitals and
218 alternate or long term care facilities with approximately 45,000 patient
beds.  The sponsoring systems are:  Alverno Administrative Services, Catholic
Health Initiatives, Daughters of Charity National Health System, Franciscan
Health Partnership and Holy Cross Health System.
    W.W. Grainger, Inc., with 1997 sales of $4.1 billion, is the leading
distributor of maintenance, repair, and operating (MRO) supplies and related
information to the commercial, industrial, contractor, and institutional
markets in North America.  GWW shares are traded on the New York and Chicago
stock exchanges.

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