Company History

Northern Lights Foodservice is the oldest operating foodservice company in Iowa, and is a broad-line distributor serving Iowa and Minnesota for over 77 years with the finest products and service available on the market!

In 1923, Jake Breckwald started the company as he pioneered the first candy truck jobbing operation in Iowa. Jake called his company the Independent Candy Company. Then in 1926 he changed the company name to the J.A. Breckwald Company, and finally in 1933, together with his partner Bud Fisher, they formed the B&F Sales Corporation.

Together, they began business selling and delivering products out of the back of a delivery trucks. The company first serviced their customers with a selection candy, and then added tobacco and then paper products and other various novelty and gift items. After several years, Jake bought out Bud, but continued to use the original name for his new company. During these years the company evolved and moved away from selling off the truck to a presales and delivery system. During the 40s & 50s the company continued to sell its core products while expanding into the foodservice arena with institutional and janitorial products. In the 1950s Jake's son in law, Rusty Garst joined the company helping to run the operations. In the 60s & 70s the company broadened their foodservice offerings and expanded into the frozen arena of business, and moved into a larger warehouse to support the increase in business and serviceable territory.

B&F Sales belonged to several buying groups over the years, including Little Brave. In the late 1980s Rusty Garst joined the buying group called EMCO, the prelude to UniPro Foodservice, where we have been a member ever since.

In the late 1980s Jake's grandson, Nick Garst joined the company, and took over operations from his father in 1991. Nick took his grandfather's company into a different direction at this time, turning its attention more to the foodservice arena and changed the name of the company from B&F Sales to B&F Foodservice to better reflect this new direction.

The company again expanded its serviceable territory and increased sales and its customer base consistently through these years, and in the late 1990s we expanded into the retail beverage and chip business with the acquisition of several local companies. In 2001 B&F moved to our current location in Fort Dodge, and tripled our warehouse capacity, including new state of the art coolers and freezers. In 2003 B&F acquired the distribution routes of Randy's Meats in Minnesota and converted these route to a presale and delivery system. With this acquisition, the company decided that it needed a new name to bring all the companies under one unified name, thus Northern Lights Foodservice was born.

Since this time Northern Lights has continued to provide our customers with the highest quality products and services available in the market. We welcome the opportunity to assist you with all your foodservice needs. Please contact us today, or get more information.

Company logo over the years...

Circa 1920 - 1980s
Circa 1992 - 2003
2003 - 2008
Today

Company History

Company logo over the years...

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