Watts Distributing has been proud to be a family-centered, Native American owned business for more than 2 decades. First opened in 1988 by Roane Fowler and Gary Watts, along with help from Becky Tom, Roane’s stepdaughter, we’ve specialized in serving local family-owned businesses in Bartlesville, particularly restaurant and concessions.
Since the beginning, our main focus has been on service. As an example of this, we’ve offered smaller quantities of bulk items: for many customers, a case is simply too much at one time, so we offer many products by the sleeve, gallon, or other smaller, easier-to-handle measurements. By channeling our attention towards providing excellent service, we were confident that sales would follow. Sure enough, that’s exactly what happened.
In 1993, Becky and her husband, Michael "Turtle" Tom, took over the business when Roane retired. Turtle began to reach out to new customers and added a variety of new product lines, particularly janitorial products. In addition to selling them, Turtle learned everything he could about them, enabling him to offer knowledge and expertise as well, which allowed us to service these products as well.
With a zeal for personal customer service, Turtle grew Watts Distributing, relying on integrity and honesty as core values. Always offering fair prices with first class service, word spread about our capabilities, while Becky remained at the very heart of Watts’ success — and still is today.
In 2011, Turtle and Becky's son, Dace, joined the Watts team, making Watts a three-generation, locally-owned, family business. Dace, like Turtle, continued to grow the business, relying on integrity and honesty as the key virtues. Today, we’re proud to have 7 team members with more than 50 years of combined experience in sales, supplies and service in the fields of restaurant, concessions, and janitorial services.
