Boker’s Reaches a 100 Year Milestone: The Past, Present and Future
Beginning a Legacy
It all began in the basement of a young, passionate and focused gentleman named Vitus Boker in Minneapolis, Minnesota. With a background of extensive tooling knowledge gained from previously working at a manufacturing company in Denmark, Vitus decided to take the leap and build his own company with his son, John, in 1919, called V.A. Boker and Sons, Inc. As time went on Vitus’ other children: William, Richard, and Marie, also joined in the family business. Initially, Vitus intended to build the company around its first products, an envelope folding machine and a small hand check protector. However, with his extensive tooling knowledge, the enterprise began generating more revenue from manufacturing prototypes and custom parts for automated machinery. As the word spread of Boker’s unique process for producing high-quality, short-run, stamped metal parts, demand grew. Vitus quickly found himself entrenched within the stamping industry as one of the pioneers of short-run stampings. The business boomed and has continued to flourish throughout the years, growing in space and customer base.
In 1968, Boker’s was purchased by four of its employees: William Tedlund, Joseph Basara, Chester Engquist, and Joseph Kantorowicz, and was run successfully for many years. In 1986 William (Bill) Tedlund became the sole owner. He lead the business with the Boker’s values and traditions, instilling those principles with his own family. He has also taught his family and others an important humbling truth to live by saying, “It is important to know what you know, but more important to know what you don’t know and who to go to.”
Today, Boker’s is still a privately held family-owned business, in its fifth generation, guided by Vitus Boker’s principals of hard work and attention to detail. From starting to help out the family business as children, the legacy continues with Bill’s children Wendy, Amy and Barry as shareholders. Amy Kersey (Bill’s daughter) is the current CEO/President and her sons, Chuck and Tony Kersey as the 5th generation at the helm of Sales and Marketing.
“Our father knew every employee and kept the pulse on the business by wandering around the shop and talking to the employees,” said Barry Tedlund. “He really knew the people and their families and what was important to them. Bill Boker, a past second generation owner, wanted to make sure the employees would continue to be taken care of when the transfer of ownership was made, and my dad made sure of it.”
