Our History
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1951
Brothers Art and Ray Schmidt bought a fuel oil route in Kimberly, Wisconsin, and formed Schmidt Brothers Oil Company. Art’s wife, Gladys, took phone calls, managed delivery schedules, and kept the books from their home in Kimberly. Across town, Ray’s wife, Carol, did the posting of receivables from their home in Kaukauna. They kept the offices in their homes until 1958.
See “How the Company Started.”
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1954
Art and Ray changed the company name to Schmidt Oil Co. when their father, Albert, joined his sons in the family business. The brothers gave up some of their stock to make Albert an equal partner. They purchased land in Combined Locks to build bulk tanks that stored oil, as well as a corporate office and the company’s first service and gas station. They hired their first employee, Gordy Hammen, who worked 41 years at the company before retiring. In later years, younger brother, Bill, purchased Albert’s third of the business.
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1958
Art and Ray seized the opportunity to purchase a truck load of Cooper Tires at a great price. With no plan or place to put them, they took a risk and bought the product, but were forced to store tires in friends’ and family members’ garages. Not long after, they created a tires and parts division, led by Ray, and built a warehouse so they could begin distribution. That business division is known today as U.S. AutoForce and is one of the largest independent tire distributors.
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1961
Bill Schmidt, who was 10 years younger than Art, joined the business full-time after he returned home from serving in the National Guard. Shortly after his homecoming, Bill started what is known today as U.S. Petroleum Equipment out of his car and went on to manage U.S. Lubricants and the truck garage.
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1969
The Bulk Motor Oil division began. This division is now called U.S. Lubricants.
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1974
In response to the 1973 Oil Embargo and through a series of serendipitous connections, Art and his son, Tom, travelled to Saudi Arabia to meet with King Faisal. There they expressed to the King that they could lose their business because of the embargo. Soon after they returned home, Art began calling on major oil companies in an attempt to trade fuel. Art realized there was plenty of product available if they were willing to pay the price. They bought high-priced fuel and sold it to high-volume users who needed it badly. Sales jumped 7x overnight and the company went national. The trip is viewed as the catalyst behind the arbitrage which is now the largest part of U.S. Venture’s business.
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1985
As the business continued to thrive, the brothers looked for ways to give back to the community. Art, Ray and Bill Schmidt founded the U.S. Venture/Schmidt Family Foundation to honor the legacy of altruism and benevolence of their parents, Albert and Margaret Schmidt.
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1986
In August 1986, Bill Schmidt founded the U.S. Venture Open, a golf outing that, since its inception, has raised millions of dollars to help those in need.
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2010
The company was renamed U.S. Venture, Inc.
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2016
IGEN, a tax filing, reporting and data reconciliation software company was acquired by U.S. Venture.
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2017
Art, Ray and Bill Schmidt were inducted into the Wisconsin Business Hall of Fame.
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2019
U.S. Venture moved to full ownership of Breakthrough, a transportation energy and supply chain management company.
