WAJCO (William A Jones Co.)
The William A. Jones co. was founded on April 22nd 1971 when William A. Jones purchased his first Mold-A-Rama machines from Roy Ward in Chicago.
Roy was an employee of the original Mold-A-Rama Inc., and had purchased several machines as well as two operating locations (Brookfield Zoo & The Museum of Science and Industry) from Automatic Retailers of America when they decided to dissolve the Mold-A-Rama division of ARA. He operated for only a few years and then decided to sell his machines and retire.
William A. Jones was a Michigan State Graduate working as a supervising accountant at Interstate United a vending & food service Company much like ARA. After a particularly long day Bill said to soon to be retiring co worker Doris Ward, “ Why don’t you have your husband sell me his business so I can get out of this rat race the same time you do.” She then replied “Roy and I were just discussing finding a buyer last night.” About 18 months later after working with Roy on weekends Bill Jones acquired all of the Mold-A-Rama machines in the Chicago area.
By 1971 the original Mold-A-Rama Inc. had completely dissolved and ARA just went on getting bigger. Today that company is known as Aramark. There were a handful of small businessman who saw the potential in Mold-A-Rama machines and kept them out and running. One of them was an operator out of Minnesota, Paul Nathanson. Paul and Bill soon began working with each other sharing purchases of custom made parts. Loaning each other materials, and helping each other out when they needed it. Paul Nathanson was one of the original franchisee of Mold-A-Rama and had several working accounts and many more machines than William. But in the early eighties when Paul decided he wanted to call it quits. William bought him out and became the biggest operators of Mold-A-Rama machines in the Midwest.
William A. Jones Co. now has expanded from just Chicago to four states. William brought in his sons Paul and Bill jr. to help run the business. The Mold-A-Rama machines just keep getting older and older, but prove to be a favorite for visitors at attractions across the country.
In 2011 William A. Jones Co. changed the company name to Mold-A-Rama and incorporated. Now the largest operators of Mold-A-Rama machines in the Midwest is once again known as ….
Mold-A-Rama Inc.
In 2015 William A Jones decided to step back into semi retirement, sadly William Jr passed the year before.