Ben E Keith: A Food and Beverage Company

Ben E. Keith started out as Harkrider-Morrison Company in 1906. Its current name was derived from the first salesman and junior partner of the business Ben E. Keith. It was in the year 1911 that the company adopted its name after one of its partners withdrew from the company. The decision was made to reflect Ben’s biggest contribution in the success of the business.

Through the hard work of Ben and his dedication to the business, the company grew to become the fourth largest beverage distributor in the United States and the ninth largest broad line foodservice distributor in the country. The enterprise’s food division services eleven states. They offer frozen foods, meats, dry groceries, produce and even paper goods.

There is currently a total of 3500 people employed by the company. It was in 1906 that the business started selling Anheuser-Busch Inbev products and it even came to a point that Ben E. Keith became the world’s largest independent distributor of their products.