Treu House of Munch was founded in 1875 by Joseph Munch as the J. Munch & Sons Company. The original firm was located at the corner of Front and Main Streets in East Toledo and included a department store, restaurant and cigar store in addition to the wholesale beer, wine and liquor business. In 1892, the business was moved one block away to the newly built Munch building which housed the prestigious Arlington Hotel. At this location, Munch had the first telephone in East Toledo. In addition, the first electric light in East Toledo was installed outside of the store.

As the company grew and prospered, beer, wine and liquor became the mainstays of the business. The company was generally known as “Toledo House of Munch” or just “House of Munch,” although the official name remained J. Munch & Sons. A major milestone was reached in 1909 when “House of Munch” was named the first wholesale distributor for the Stroh Brewery, which had been brewing and selling beer in Detroit since 1850. The company later added Anheuser-Busch’s Budweiser brand to its growing product list.

In 1918, Prohibition forced the company to give up its beverage business and return to its former products – candies and confections. After the Prohibition law was repealed in 1933, the firm resumed selling beer, wine and liquor. As a matter of fact, Joseph Munch’s son Leo purchased the first load of Stroh’s beer produced after Prohibition.

Although Prohibition did not kill the company, the Depression nearly did. In an effort to help the struggling company, John Stroh of the Stroh brewery introduced Leo Munch to Max Rudolph Heinrich Treu, a beer distributor in Saginaw. In 1934, Treu and Munch each came up with $10,000 and the existing Treu House of Munch was incorporated. The new company started its operation in a 12,000 square foot warehouse at 1601 Dorr Street and employed five driver-salesmen. Their main products were Stroh’s and Pepsi-Cola.

In 1940, Treu and Munch hired Richard A. Esser and assigned him a route on a Pepsi truck. Within six months, Dick Esser had already reached the top position in this field. Recognizing this achievement, Leo Munch gave him a single share of stock in the company. By the late 1940’s, Dick had become sales manager and vice president of the corporation. Leo Munch continued to give more responsibility to Dick and eventually gave him an option to buy all the Munch stock as a reward for his tireless efforts. During the next three decades, Treu House of Munch achieved numerous milestones under the leadership of Dick Esser. In 1954, Treu House of Munch became the first distributor to sell over one million cases of Stroh’s beer in a single market in one year. That achievement began a string of eleven consecutive years in which Stroh’s beer sales exceeded one million cases – a record that has yet to be broken in the Toledo market.

In 1955, the company moved to its new, ultra-modern warehouse at 501 High Street. This facility occupied one square block and could store 133,00 cases of beer. Dick Esser was instrumental in obtaining the Anheuser-Busch brands from Mohr Brothers Bottling Company. In March of 1961, Budweiser returned to Treu House of Munch with Bud only having a previous year’s annual sales of 10,000 cases.

Max Treu died in 1972 at the age of 86 and his seat as president was handed down to his son Russ Treu. In 1974, Leo Munch died at the age of 89 and his position as chairman of the board, was filled by Dick Esser. Dick passed away in July, 1976 at the age of 62, just before the company moved to its present location at 6700 Wales Road in Northwood.

The current facility was built as a state-of-the-art beer warehouse, using the latest technology in controlled environment warehousing. The 72,000 square foot warehouse had the capacity to store over 300,000 cases of beer and 5,000 half barrels.

On April 17, 1984, the remaining members of the Esser family who were active in the business bought Treu’s side of the company. Today, the company is owned by Richard G. Esser. Officers of the Company include Richard G. Esser, Chairman and President, Todd Esser, Vice President, Gregory P. Hipp, Vice President of Sales & Administration, Richard C. Niehaus, Vice President of Marketing & Brand Management, James W. Layman, Treasurer & Controller and Margie Esser, Secretary.

Treu House of Munch currently employs 92 people to service a market that covers an area running north to the Michigan state line, south to Waterville and Grand Rapids, west to Metamora and east to Bono. With 28 Anheuser-Busch delivery routes and an in-house beer and promotional items store, Treu House of Munch continues to be the number one distributor in the Toledo area servicing over 1,200 on and off-premise accounts. Not bad for a company that started with two horse-drawn wagons servicing 350 customers in East Toledo.