The “RightWay” to Keep a Family Business Growing

When Ron Williams’ grandfather began “Fruit Distributors”, a business providing produce to the Lima area during the Great Depression, he created a legacy that has grown into a thriving company that now serves four states. Ron’s father expanded that business into a full-service food distributor in the 1960s called RightWay Foods. In 2000, that business merged with The Powell Company, a janitorial services company, under one umbrella.

When Ron had the opportunity to purchase the company and bring it back into the family he jumped at it. “I knew as a local business I wanted to work with a local community bank, and I immediately thought of Darrell Buroker and Chad King,” comments Williams. Darrell is the Chief Lending Officer and Chad is the Lima Market President for CNB. He’d had previous experience working with both of them through community endeavors and felt they’d be the easiest to deal with for his financial needs. “From the first meeting, they were constantly communicating with me, providing not only financial advice but also industry information that was helpful to me as I developed my business plan,” states Williams.

Making the move to CNB from another bank was an easy transition says Williams. He credits Chad and the team of CNB employees from treasury management to Online for Business with successfully completing the purchase. “The team that Chad put together… we were able to sit down and get everything answered in such short time periods. We were extremely excited how quickly we were able to put this entire deal together. Without Citizens National Bank, I’m not sure I would have been able to purchase this company that has been in three generations and be able to do with it what we’ve done.”

Citizens National Bank focuses on helping build businesses one relationship at a time. To view Ron’s story and learn more about how we’ve helped other businesses, check out our video series.