North Kansas City Beverage, Inc
Wholesaler of Anheuser-Busch Beverages
Russell Borland acquired North Kansas City Beverage Company in 1951, which was located at 1214 Swift, North Kansas City, Missouri. Russell ran the business by itself starting out with two old Dodge trucks. He ran five different routes each week with the total of 68 accounts. He would do his book on Saturday and unload beer from the brewery on Sundays.
In 1956 The business moved to 1314 Erie in North Kansas City, adding more square footage for warehouse space. The business was growing, so Russell hired two full time drivers and someone part-time to answer phones and do the posting.
1967 – Landlord doubled our warehouse space.
1970 – Lars, Russell’s stepson, joined the company as a driver.
1972 – Curt, Russell’s son, joined the company as a driver
1974 – First Equity Agreement signed with the Brewery
1976 – Russell purchased his first building at 203 East 11th Avenue North Kansas City with 24,000 square feet.
1978 – Hobart became the first Sales Manager
1981 – received our 25 year Award from the Brewery
1985 – Doubled the warehouse space by adding an additional 24,000 square feet
1986 – Tripled our Office Space
1987 – On may 21st, Russell Borland passed away leaving the business to his wife, Margaret, who became Chairmen of the Board. As successor, Curt became President and Lars as Executive Vice President. Jayne, his daughter, left her current job to join the family owned business. She became the Sec./Treasury for the company.
1988 – Increased the CEW by 10,000 square feet
1989 – Took half of our storage area and made price office for Hobart, now head of Marketing and Sales
1990 – New Draft Cooler
1998 – Added 27,00 square feet to the south end of the warehouse. By doing so, we were able to increase our track space in the warehouse by 10,000 square feet and our CEW by 17,000 square feet. Also a new repack room and four new receiving docks for our shipments were added.
1999 – Doubled our office space, which included a large room for the five Account Managers, a second meeting room, four private offices and a training room.
By 2001, North Kansas City Beverage Company had grown tremendously. Now we have around 60 employees and 400 plus accounts.