Edwin M. Fisher (Ed) founded KDR Supply in 1981. Originally, Ed started KDR to supply the needs of the oilfield service industry. Supplying such things as swab cups to the swab trucks and other items to the work-over rigs operating in the Liberty area. The first few years of KDR's existence, Ed worked the business part time, with the hopes of retiring from his full time job at Southland Paper Co. and spending more time in building KDR.
Ed retired in 1988 from St Regis Paper Company (Southland Paper) and began working full time at KDR Supply. As the business grew Ed realized that working alone and from his garage was a definite handicap. He determined that some changes were necessary in order for KDR to grow and prosper. Rocky Fisher, Ed’s youngest son was asked to join the company. Rocky accepted the position and started working for KDR in early 1991. Late 1991, Ed decided that he wanted to retire from KDR. He offered the Company to Rocky and in 1992; Rocky purchased KDR Supply from his father and moved the business from the cramped garage. It was this move that helped KDR to expand their product offering to include products used in the exploration and production of oil. The new facility was located at 102 Oklahoma Street in southwest Liberty.
Danny Fisher, a brother of Rocky joined the firm in early 1993 as an equal partner and the firm was incorporated in 1994. It was at this time that KDR opened its first pump shop to handle the demands of the oil field exploration with down-hole pumps. This is the repair of pumps that bring oil to the surface. With five years of double-digit growth the two brothers decided that opening another branch would insure their growth. In 1999 KDR Supply opened their first branch in Jasper, Texas. KDR Supply continued to grow and prosper with the two locations one in Liberty and the other in Jasper.
Our Oklahoma Street facility served the purpose for several years but as we grew the facility became outdated and we decided that we needed a larger facility that would provide the additional space for our growth. In 2000 we moved to 3112 Beaumont Avenue. This facility provided KDR with more room for stocking pipe and providing buildings for our pump shop and maintaining large inventories to support the oilfield and industrial markets.
We opened our third location in 2002. This branch located in Beaumont, Texas has become a powerful contributor to the overall growth of KDR Supply. As we continued to grow we realized that our Liberty location at 3112 Beaumont was a good facility but unfortunately, we had outgrown our location. After some review we decided to upgrade our facility in Liberty and now our building improvements are complete and our facility at 3112 Beaumont Avenue is 14,000 square feet on 2.5 acres.
We outgrew the original facility in Beaumont TX, and in early 2005, we completed the construction of our new facility in Beaumont, Texas. This is a state of the art facility at 7,200 square feet of warehouse and showroom with an impressive 24,000 square feet in yard storage. We are well equipped to continue with the dedication of providing goods and services to all our customers.
We have finished our 8000 square foot warehouse and showroom plus an equal amount of yard space in El Campo, Texas. This new facility is open and doing business. This location has brought our total number of branches to four.
2006 has been a busy year; all our old stores are doing well. In February, we opened our fifth branch in Buffalo, Texas. Consequently, in May we opened our Longview, Texas branch. Both of these two branches open up two new sales markets that we have never had a chance to serve until now. The Buffalo branch has a 3000 sq ft warehouse and showroom with a 20,000 sq ft pipe yard. Longview has a 10, 000 sq ft showroom and warehouse with a 20,000 sq ft pipe yard.