From the Ground Up: Looking Back at the Early Years of MR Williams

As MR Williams celebrates 50 years in business, an article published by the Henderson Daily Dispatch in September 1990 offers a remarkable look at how quickly the company’s foundation was built.

At the time, MR Williams was still a relatively young business. Mike Williams had purchased the Henderson wholesale grocery operation in April 1976, just over 14 years before the article was published. Yet, in that short period, the company had already grown from approximately $3 million to $35 million in annual sales.

The growth was visible in nearly every part of the operation. Employment increased from about 20 people to 100, while the delivery fleet expanded from three vans to 12 tractor-trailers. What began as a small regional wholesaler was becoming a primary grocery supplier serving customers across northern North Carolina and southern Virginia.

Mike’s path into the grocery business was anything but conventional. A former Air Force and Eastern Airlines pilot, he entered the industry with limited wholesale experience after learning that the Watkins-Sydnor company in Henderson was for sale. He saw potential in both the business and the community, and he made the decision to build his family’s future in Vance County.

From the beginning, Mike approached the company with an ambition that still feels familiar today. He did not want MR Williams to remain a secondary supplier. He wanted the company to earn a larger role by offering customers more products, better service and stronger value.

That meant investing early.

The company added freezer capacity, expanded its dry-goods selection, computerized its inventory and sales systems, and hired additional retail support. MR Williams also began extending its service territory, finding opportunities to bring products into new markets while improving the level of service available to independent retailers.

Growth eventually pushed the original warehouse beyond its limits. Mike purchased adjoining property and, through a fortunate discovery, secured a 60,000-square-foot former tobacco warehouse behind the existing operation. The building required significant renovations, including new wiring, plumbing, a sprinkler system, lighting and a roof, but it gave MR Williams the room it needed to continue growing.

Looking back, the most striking part of the story is not simply how much the company had accomplished by 1990. It is how recognizable the approach remains 50 years after the journey began.

MR Williams has continued to expand its capabilities, technology, services and reach, but the principles established during those early years still guide the company today: invest for the future, serve customers with sincerity, never become satisfied with the status quo and leave things better than we found them.

The trucks, warehouses and technology may look different now, but the foundation remains the same. What began with one determined entrepreneur and a small Henderson wholesale business has grown across generations into the company we are proud to celebrate today.

Fifty years later, MR Williams is still moving forward, together.