Our History

In 1932, a young traveling salesman named Milt Odom stepped off a steamboat in Juneau, Alaska full of ambition and dreams of making his mark on the last frontier. A year later, Milt formed Odom & Company, an independent broker selling bourbon, liquor, coffee, tea, spices, meats, candy, and other dry goods. In 1934, he opened Anchorage Cold Storage for business. In 1937, after meeting with Coca-Cola’s Chairman of the Board, Milt seized a unique business opportunity. He acquired the Coca-Cola franchise rights for one dollar.

Throughout the next few years, Milt also acquired distribution franchises for several other popular sodas. The Odom Company, selling produce, opened in Seattle in 1944. And in the early 1950s, Anchorage Cold Storage canned its first Coca-Cola. It signaled the beginning of a new era in soft drink beverage distribution and established Anchorage Cold Storage as the major supplier of canned beverages in Alaska. Milt then purchased the Coca-Cola franchise in Idaho in 1964.

In 1970, Milt bought distribution rights to Miller Brewing Co. and extended his soft drink business to include Dr Pepper, 7-Up, Hires Root Beer and Crush. Then in the mid-1970s, Milt reorganized all his business activities into what is now The Odom Corporation, and Odom’s corporate headquarters moved to Seattle. The company had grown to more than 200 employees located throughout Washington, Idaho and Alaska and had expanded its product line to include beer, wine and spirits.

After Milt passed away in 1988, his three sons – John, Jim and Bill – took on the leadership of the company. The three brothers had worked closely with their father for years, and continued his successful business model of building and maintaining relationships and treating people fairly. This approach continues to be the cornerstone of the company’s success today.

Over the following three decades, The Odom Corporation steadily increased its portfolio and territory through a series of acquisitions, expansions, and joint ventures with other beverage distribution companies in the Pacific Northwest. Most recently, Odom expanded its business into the Hawaiian Islands, and partnered with Craig Stein Beverage to form a new beverage wholesaler company in Western Washington.

Odom has grown and matured into one of the largest privately held companies in the Pacific Northwest and employs a team of over 2,250 talented people across a span of five states. While the corporation has progressed considerably throughout the years, the core operations and values that made Odom an initial success have remained the same. Odom's divisions and wholly owned subsidiaries still operate today under the guiding spirit of Milt Odom.

The Odom Corporation was proudly named the Brewers Association’s 2016 Craft Distributor of the Year and Market Watch’s 2018 Beer Wholesaler of the Year. In 2019, The Odom Corporation was nominated for the Anchorage Chamber Gold Pan Awards for Business Excellence, and John Odom received the Molson Coors Legends Award. Additionally, Odom has been honored in recent years to receive several Molson Coors Presidents Awards.