# Uline The privately held shipping-supplies and packaging distributor that is the **cash engine** of one of the most consequential conservative megadonor operations in America. Founded in 1980 by [[Dick Uihlein]] and [[Elizabeth Uihlein]], Uline sells boxes, tape, labels, janitorial supplies, warehouse equipment, and safety gear — more than 40,000 products in all — generating an estimated **$8 billion in annual revenue** with **9,800+ employees** across 14 locations in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. Journalists have called it "the operational substrate of e-commerce": the unglamorous physical infrastructure that makes Amazon-era logistics work. Nearly every warehouse in America has Uline products on site. ## The Wealth Source Uline is the engine; the Uihleins are the drivers. Dick Uihlein is also an heir to the **Schlitz brewing fortune**, but it is Uline — not inherited beer money — that funds the political operation at scale. The key structural fact, emphasized across the [[Uihlein Family]] analysis, is that the Uihleins are **not drawing down a fixed fortune** — they are spending from a *growing cash flow*. As the company's revenue roughly doubled over the past decade (from ~$4B toward $8B+), the political giving expanded proportionally. As long as e-commerce grows and warehouses need boxes, the political-spending capacity grows with it. The company is headquartered in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin. The **2009 relocation** of Uline's headquarters from Illinois to Wisconsin was itself a political act — an explicit statement against Illinois's tax-and-regulatory environment that crystallized the Uihleins' anti-tax, anti-regulation politics and made Wisconsin their primary political laboratory, where Dick became the single largest donor in state races for over a decade. ## The Catalog as a Messaging Vehicle Uline's most distinctive political asset is its **quarterly catalog**. Elizabeth Uihlein writes a personal column in the thick, glossy product catalog that is mailed to millions of business customers across North America. The column is personal, political, and frequently conservative — and it reaches an audience no conventional political-messaging operation can buy: **procurement managers, warehouse operators, small-business owners, and office managers**, the operational middle class of American commerce. That demographic skews right but is not normally targeted with explicit political content, which makes the catalog a uniquely direct channel. Liz Uihlein's columns have at times included anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ content, turning a shipping-supplies catalog into a social-conservative broadcast medium. ## Uline Cash → Political Power The money Uline generates flows into one of the largest individual-donor operations in U.S. politics. Per OpenSecrets analysis, the Uihleins have collectively given **more than $250 million** to federal candidates and political groups since the 2016 cycle, and the pace has not slowed — Dick Uihlein routed **$15.3 million** into his [[Restoration of America]] PAC in the second half of 2025 alone ahead of the 2026 midterms. Their giving runs through vehicles including [[Restoration PAC]], [[Restoration of America]], and the [[Uihlein Family Foundation]], and ProPublica's investigation *"How the Uline Box Empire Has Fueled Election Denial"* documented the pipeline from Uline wealth into the operational core of the election-denial movement. The through-line for this KB: like [[Koch Industries]] for [[the Kochs]], Uline is the private, disclosure-light business whose cash flow underwrites a political project far larger than any single campaign — with the added twist that the company's own catalog doubles as a messaging organ. (For the donors and the political operation, see [[Uihlein Family]], [[Dick Uihlein]], and [[Elizabeth Uihlein]].) ## See Also - [[Uihlein Family]] — The dynasty and political operation - [[Dick Uihlein]] · [[Elizabeth Uihlein]] — The owner-donors - [[Uihlein Family Foundation]] — The philanthropic vehicle - [[Restoration PAC]] · [[Restoration of America]] — Super PAC vehicles - [[Koch Industries]] — Parallel private-company-as-war-chest model