How we became Highland Supply
Our Beginning
Highland Supply was founded in 2010 by Todd Hess to solve a common industry challenge: high disposable costs for food purveyors.
The business began humbly—with the rear seats removed from the family’s 1999 GMC Suburban and space cleared in the garage—as Todd set out to provide a more affordable solution.
Growth Years
Todd grew the business incrementally over the next five years, moving from his garage to a storage unit, and eventually into his first 2,500-square-foot warehouse. His operations scaled rapidly, transitioning from picking up products daily at wholesalers to accepting vendor deliveries at the warehouse. In 2014, he hired his first driver to help manage the increasing demand.
A Family Partnership
In 2015, Todd’s son, Brady, joined the team—partly to ensure Todd could finally take a vacation. With a strong background in the restaurant industry and a natural ability to build client relationships, Brady handled deliveries and sales calls while pursuing his business degree at Walsh College. Highland Supply became the case study for many of his course projects, and together, the father-son duo achieved year-over-year growth exceeding 50% every year from 2015 to 2019.
Resilience and Expansion
2020-Present
That resilience fueled a period of significant growth, with Highland Supply growing by 300% in size between 2021 and 2025. We expanded our footprint with a distribution center in Gaylord, MI, in 2021, followed by a Grand Rapids, MI location in 2024. Today, Highland Supply is proud to employ 40+ team members and service more than 2,000 businesses across Michigan.
Diversification and Our Future
As we continue to grow we always have and will put our customer satisfaction first, and we will continue doing so!
