Food distributor serving Ashland, Wisconsin

Our trucks are in Ashland every Tuesday and Friday, out of our own warehouse in Superior — not a depot, not a drop point. Meats, produce, dry goods, kitchen and tableware, paper and disposables, all on one truck and one invoice.

Ashland sits east of us on US 2, and it has been on our routes for decades — restaurants on Main Street, resorts and supper clubs around Chequamegon Bay, camps and school kitchens inland.

What that usually means from a big distributor is that you are the far end of somebody's territory: a delivery window you did not pick, a rep you meet once a year, and a queue to get through when a case arrives short. We run it the other way round. Ashland is a scheduled stop on a route we have driven for years, and the rep who sells to you is the one who drives out and knows your kitchen — what you run, what you tried and dropped, what you need before a long weekend.

We are a family company — two generations of Manions, in the business since 1991 — and about 6,600 items deep, which is enough to be somebody's only supplier and not so much that your rep cannot tell you what is actually good this week.

Ashland, WI at a glance

  • Delivery days Tuesday and Friday
    Every week, year round
  • Order cutoff 4:00 PM the day before
  • Order minimum $200 per order, not per week
  • Delivered from 2614 N 14th St
    Superior, WI 54880
Chris Warren
Your sales rep
Chris Warren

Not sure we reach you? Put your address in here and we will tell you your day straight out.

And the rest of the bay

Ashland is not a one-town trip for us. The same week takes our trucks through the towns around it, so a kitchen in Washburn or Mellen is no more of a stretch than one on Main Street.

Around Chequamegon Bay

  • Washburn
  • Bayfield
  • Mason
  • Cornucopia
  • Herbster
  • Port Wing

South and inland

  • Highbridge
  • Mellen
  • Glidden
  • Iron River
  • Drummond
  • Clam Lake

Delivery days vary by town — check your address for yours, or see all 58 towns on our routes.

What comes off the truck

Four groups, thirty-plus brands, one delivery. The same list an Ashland kitchen orders from as a Superior one — there is no short version for towns further out.

Or search all 6,600 items by name, brand or item number before you call.

Starting an account

Four steps, about a week end to end.

  1. Chris comes out

    He is in the area anyway. He walks the kitchen, looks at what you already run, and helps you build a first order around it rather than around a catalog.

  2. Credit application

    One page. Fill it in online or print it — it is read in Superior by someone who can say yes.

    Open the application
  3. Your order guide

    The items you actually buy, in the order you actually count them, so ordering takes minutes instead of an afternoon.

  4. Tuesday and Friday

    Order by 4:00 PM the day before and it is on the truck.

Questions we get from Ashland, WI

Is Ashland really a scheduled stop, or do you come when there is enough on the truck?

Scheduled. Tuesdays and Fridays, every week, whatever is on the truck. It is a route we have run for years, not a trip we decide on each week.

What happens if I run out on a Wednesday?

Call your rep. We cannot promise a truck on a day we do not run, but a lot gets solved anyway — and you will be talking to somebody in Superior who knows your account, not a queue.

We are seasonal. Is that a problem?

No — a good share of what we deliver around the bay is resorts and camps that are flat out in July and quiet in February. The $200 minimum is per order, not per week, and there is no penalty for a slow season.

Do we have to move everything over at once?

No. Plenty of kitchens start with one category — produce, or paper — and go from there. We would rather earn the rest than have it written into an agreement.

Talk to somebody who drives Ashland

Call the office or send a note, and the rep who covers Ashland gets back to you. Either way you end up talking to the person who would actually handle your account — that is the whole point of buying from a company this size.