Lentz, A Brenntag Company

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Our History

“My great-grandfather, Jake Lentz, started this business as a flour mill over 75 years ago in Leesport, Pennsylvania. He was joined by his two sons, Henry (my grandfather) and Mark (my great-uncle) and they set about milling soft winter wheat grown in the eastern Pennsylvania region.

Soon after starting Lentz Milling Company, the United States entered World War II. Like many American families at that time, the Lentz’s made sacrifices to support the war effort. Mark joined the Army and, soon thereafter, the U.S. government requisitioned the new diesel generator that Jake had ordered for the mill. Left with no reliable way to power the equipment and mill flour, Jacob and Henry made the fateful decision to use the check they received from the government to buy the only truck they could find, a used 1936 International Harvester flat bed pictured above. They became, out of necessity, a wholesale distributor of flour sourced from other local Pennsylvania mills. Our original service territory was central Pennsylvania, Philadelphia and the Coal Region of northeast Pennsylvania, serviced by the single truck driven by Henry.

After the war ended in 1945, our family decided not to reopen the mill but instead focus on growing the distribution business. The decades following the war proved the wisdom of that decision as we continued to grow our distribution footprint and build our reputation for providing reliable, personal service to our customers. By 1969, we outgrew our original Leesport mill location and moved to nearby Reading, Pennsylvania, where we remain today. Not only was the Reading facility significantly larger, it also had a rail siding, which allowed us to cost-effectively source flour from the best mills in the country. Henry had assumed leadership of the company by the time of the move, assisted by his two sons Ed and Jim and his brother Mark.

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