82 Years of Natural Goodness

• 1921 — Stanley T. Bennett buys a dairy in Portland from the Leadbetter family and founds Oakhurst Dairy near a grove of oak trees on Woodfords Street in Portland. Within a few months, Stanley moves the dairy to its present location at 364 Forest Ave. in Portland.
  
  
• 1920s-1930s — Oakhurst, starting with two horse-drawn milk wagons, grows steadily, earning a reputation for superior service and fresh, high-quality dairy products.
  
  
• 1940s — Oakhurst becomes one of the first businesses in southern Maine to introduce company-paid medical insurance, as well as one of the first companies in the nation to introduce a deferred profit-sharing plan.
  
  
• 1953 — Donald H. Bennett, Stanley’s son, takes over as president.
  
  
• 1954 — Oakhurst expands its plant to more than three times the original size, creating a production capacity of 40,000 quarts of milk per day.
  
  
• 1970 — Oakhurst advertises on television for the first time.
  
  
• 1973 — Continuing to expand, Oakhurst purchases a building next to the plant that formerly housed the Henley-Kimball auto dealership.
  
  
• 1984 — Stanley T. Bennett II, Donald’s oldest son, becomes Oakhurst’s third president; Donald becomes chairman of the board of trustees. Two of Donald’s other children also begin new roles: William P. Bennett as vice president of operations; and Althea Bennett Allen as customer service manager.
  
  
• 1989 — Oakhurst completes another major expansion, adding a state-of-the art "high-rise" cooler.
  
  
• 1992 — Oakhurst introduces "Quality Producer Awards", an annual quality-incentive program that rewards dairy farmers for upholding the highest standards of quality.
  
  
• 1993 — Oakhurst’s processing plant, which has always been highly rated for quality and sanitation, receives its first perfect 100 score from the federal government—the highest rating of any dairy in the Northeast. This achievement is matched in four of the next five inspections!
  
  
• 1996 — Marathon legends Joan Benoit Samuelson and Bill Rodgers help Oakhurst celebrate the 10th anniversary of the four-mile Oakhurst Milk Run.
  
  
• 2001 — Oakhurst launches a year-long celebration of its 80th anniversary as a family-owned and operated dairy for three generations. Now with over 200 employees, the dairy processes and packages 50,000 gallons of milk six days a week.
  
  
• 2002 — Oakhurst volunteers to participate in the Federal government’s new cleanliness and safety program, Hazard and Critical Control Points (HACCP).
  
  
• 2003 — Oakhurst launches a major fund-raising initiative on behalf of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Maine and New Hampshire as part of our pledge to give ten percent of profits to help kids and the environment. The fund raising initiative netted $100,000 for 27 club locations across the two states.