Wright Heaton & Co Limited was founded in 1862 and was incorporated in New South Wales on 2 March 1880. The company was formed to merge the New South Wales partnership of Wright Heaton Barber & Co, formed in 1875, with the Victorian company William McCulloch & Co Limited. The company was listed on the Sydney Stock Exchange in 1896. In 1898 it bought the Melbourne firm McCulloch Carrying Company Proprietary Limited and its subsidiary Murray River Sawmills Limited. By 1900 the company had branches in 29 towns in New South Wales and four in Queensland. In 1909 the Queensland branches closed and the Queensland company liquidated. In the late 19th century its business was chiefly carrying wool produced in NSW, and through the McCulloch subsidiary it operated a large fleet of barges on the Murray River. The company diversified into farm produce and by the 1950s was chiefly a wholesale chain-grocer with 30 branches in NSW and 2 in Victoria. During the 1960s and early 1970s the company added subsidiaries by acquiring Miller's Stores, Worsley Foods Pty Ltd, Willarene Distributors Pty Ltd and Hussar Pty Limited. In 1977 Wright Heaton & Co Limited was acquired by Tooth & Co Limited. At the time the company had five subsidiaries: Wright Heaton Stores Pty Ltd, Wright McCulloch Pty Ltd, Worsley Foods Pty Ltd, Wright Heaton Rural Pty Ltd and Wright Heaton Distributors Pty Ltd. The company became a subsidiary of Tooth & Co Limited and was delisted from the Stock Exchange in 1978.