Our story opens in the beautiful Upper Peninsula (U.P.) of Michigan when Lois Murker and Doug Wescott (a friend from school) saw a need for a commercial foodservice equipment and supply store based outside the Milwaukee and Chicago metropolitan areas. The pair's vision became a reality in March 1955 when they established Hiawatha Chef Supply in a small store on Ludington Street in Escanaba, Michigan, 110 miles north of Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Hiawatha Chef Supply moved into its present location, the former National Guard Armory, a 20,000 sq. ft. building at 400 N. Lincoln Road in Escanaba, in 1961. In 1958, Lois married Ralph Thompson and Ralph joined Hiawatha, becoming a partner in the business as an on-the-road salesperson covering cities across the U.P. and northeastern Wisconsin. They developed a sales philosophy of the "customer is always KING."

The business continued to grow with Ralph and Lois at the helm and in 1976, I and my brother Terry (second generation) joined the company, learning the business from the ground up.

In 1977, we opened a full-service branch office in Green Bay with 15 employees. We closed the office in 1987 to devote our resources to expanding the Escanaba location.

In June of 1982, Hiawatha Chef Supply had acquired the product lines of Northern Chemical, a full line janitorial supply house, there by expanding our product line to include janitorial equipment and supplies.

In 1996, the second generation took over Hiawatha and bought the company from Lois. We brothers continued in joint ownership until 2003 when Terry left Hiawatha to start his own foodservice supply company in Fort Collins, Colorado. Call for the possibility of tax exempt purchases through his company.

During the past 50 years, Hiawatha has done hundreds of foodservice installations at restaurants, schools, churches, hospitals, clubs and numerous other institutions throughout Michigan and Wisconsin. Contact us for a sample listing of satisfied customers.

We believe Hiawatha Chef Supply is known by the "company it keeps." It is a distributor for hundreds of nationally-known brands in the foodservice and janitorial industries. The company is a member of the Excell Foodservice Equipment Dealer Network and the NISSCO Janitorial Buying and Marketing Groups, to provide its customers with national buying power while maintaining a low overhead.

Hiawatha is also a 50-year member of the Foodservice Equipment Dealers Association(FEDA) and belongs to the International Sanitary Supply Association(ISSA). Hiawatha Chef Supply- Big enough to serve you-Small enough to know you. Thank you. Tracy L. Thompson President.