Founded in 1910, Wm. R. Hill is marking 100 years in business [sic]. When William R. Hill started the business, it distributed dried beans, nuts and sugar.
Today, the Richmond-based business headed by Hill's grandson, William Hill III, is a commodity distributor of food products, such as sugar, rice, dried beans and canned goods. The company also distributes glass and plastic containers, bottle caps and closures.
William Hill III joined the family business in 1977 when his father, William Hill Jr., owned the company with Bob Willhite. Hill eventually bought out his father's and Willhite's interest in the business.
"I learned about the business from my dad," Hill said. "I listened when he talked."
Hill's father began as a shipping clerk for the company in the 1930s. "Dad went to Hampden-Sydney for a year and then went back for his second year," Hill said. "He had to leave school when the American Bank closed down, and all the money for college was gone because of the Great Depression."
The company had its headquarters and warehouse at 114 Virginia St. from 1910 to 1985. Hill remembers when water filled the bottom level of the building during the 1972 flood from Hurricane Agnes. "It blew out the metal doors," he said. "There were bottles all on the street. We had to get an SBA loan to replace the inventory."
At first, Wm. R. Hill distributed only locally. "There were about 20 wholesalers in walking distance of our warehouse," Hill said. "My dad would carry the invoices to them and make sales calls at the same time."
By the 1950s, the company was involved in government bidding, shipping commodity items to institutions such as hospitals, prisons and colleges in Virginia and North Carolina.
Today, it distributes goods from Texas to New York. It also distributes glass and plastic containers — lines it picked up in 1960 — to breweries, wineries and food manufacturers in Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland.
McCutcheon Apple Products in Frederick, Md., started buying bottles, caps and containers from the company 50 years ago. "They are fantastic to work with," said McCutcheon's president, Bob McCutcheon III. "They go out of their way to have inventory in stock. They do a great job of working on our behalf with the manufacturer."
McCutcheon appreciates that Wm. R. Hill is a family business like his own company. "They are the kind of people we like dealing with," he said.
Wm. R. Hill moved to its current warehouse and packaging site at 4500 E. Main St. when it outgrew its old location. It maintains about 4,000 pallets of goods in its almost 70,000-square-foot warehouse.
The company continues to package dried beans but imports many of its canned goods and other commodities from China, Italy, Hungary, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, Mexico and Canada. "We import because of the lower prices," Hill III said.
Food products from the U.S. include rice from Texas, apples from Pennsylvania, Virginia and Michigan, and canned fruits from California, Oregon and Washington.
The company's growth has been steady during the past century. In the past four years, it has not only weathered the economy but also experienced sales growth.
Hill refers to the company as a "small, big business." The company's 10 employees include Hill's son, Landon, who joined the business in 2008 and now heads the warehouse. "Most everyone has been here for more than 10 years," Hill said. "One employee, LaVerne Jones, has been with the company for 58 years."
