Throwback Thursday - The Beginnings of Keizer Companies

Starting today we will share with you details about our rich company history, with our humble beginnings dating back to 1976. Check in every Thursday to find out more about how our company started and what lead to it to become one of the largest family owned trailer dealerships in the Midwest!

Stacy and Shane, today’s owners of Keizer Companies, pictured in front of Jim’s first service truck. They would often sleep inside the truck as their Dad drove around the Sioux City area and worked on customers’ equipment.

Jim Keizer was the eldest child of Hudson, SD, farmers Sam and Nellie Keizer. Leaving farming to his younger siblings, Jim attended a trade school in Glenwood, IA. After he graduated, Jim worked for the railroads repairing train cars. After moving to Sioux City, in 1976 he started his own business, Jim Keizer Refrigeration Service, serving customers in Sioux City with only a tool box in the back of his pickup truck. He ran a one man company with no other employees. In his first year Jim worked at truck stops and eventually began working at IBP in Dakota City on refrigeration units. In the next two years he purchased his first service truck and started working on equipment at large packing houses in town, including John Morell. Jim worked days and nights, often away all night during cold winter nights and then heading back to work first thing in the morning. During the winter, refrigeration units gel up easily and Jim was on call to help businesses when their equipment stopped working. At that time, there were no cell phones and Jim communicated with truck stops using walkie-talkies!