522 14th Ave W Williston, North Dakota, 58801- United States
Company Details
About OK Distributing
Serving Northwest North Dakota & Eastern Montana since 1955
O.K. Distributing was founded in 1955 by Ray Kaiser and Emil Olson. They started out in a small 20' by 30' building in southeast Williston. Shortly after the start of the company, Ray bought out Emil and became a corporation. In 1960, Ray purchased a larger building that was previously occupied by a grocery store. After remodeling the building, he portioned part of it off for a "meat market" that is rented out to close friend Walt Trieder that became Walt's Market until 1980 when they moved to University Avenue.
During the sixties, the company expanded the territory and products that they carried. All of Ray's sons worked for him at one time or another. One of his sons, Bruce, started full time in 1966. In 1977, Ray retired and sold the company to Bruce. He oversaw the company through the boom and bust of the oil boom in the Williston Basin. In 1989, Bruce's oldest son, Kelly, started with the company after graduating from UND. In 1991, the company brought the first computers into the company.
During the nineties, the company slowly and methodically expanded the territory and product selections for their customers. In 1998, the company purchased Gierke's Distributing in Miles City, Montana. Bruce's son Chris was chosen to oversee the Miles City distributing center. Chris was a graduate of Arizona State University. This was the largest acquisition in the company's history. The company now covered 13 counties in Eastern Montana and 5 counties in North Dakota.
In 2001, the company expanded their building in Williston to accommodate the growing product lines including beverages. In January 2002, Bruce sold the company to Kelly. O.K. Distributing is truly a locally owned company for over three generations.
