The PQT Company is located in Oak Grove, Minnesota, a northern suburb of Minneapolis. We are committed to producing the finest quality trees, wreaths and other retailer items. We have the ability to deliver nationwide as well as Canada.

In 1964, Will Almendinger started retailing trees at one location in the Twin Cities to support his way through college. The retail lot were named "Willy's Wonderland" and initially sold cultured scotch pine, norway pine and wild balsam that he would cut in northern Minnesota.

Through out the late 60's and early 70's, "Willy's Wonderland" expanded to multiple lots across the northern metropolitan area. To assist with the retail operation, Will went into partnership with his Brother and Brother-in-Law, Russ Almendinger and Charles Edling. "Willy's Wonderland" was now a family affair.

They decided to change the name of the lots to "Premium Quality Trees" much to the dismay of people writing checks. They used this name until a cold December night in 1973. An elderly lady, wanting to pay for a $10 scotch pine with a frozen pen, asked if she could make the check out to PQT. From that day forward, we would be known as the PQT Company.

The brothers decided to incorporate the PQT Company and plant their first plantation in 1974. The plantation consisted of scotch, norway, white pine, and balsam fir. It was their intention to grow enough trees to supply the retail lots. A second plantation was purchased and planted the next year.

As the trees grew, they found themselves in a dilemma many farmers have, they had more trees ready for market than they could sell at the retail lots. Will and Russ Almendinger set out to cultivate new wholesale accounts. They called on Nurseries and independent retailers in the Midwest to sell the excess trees. They also worked in establishing new retailers for fundraising events for charities, churches, Boy Scouts and other organizations. The brothers were able use their many years of retailing to help new customers with display, trends and overall management of a Christmas tree lot.

As the wholesale portion of the company started to grow, the PQT Company moved into the lower level of Charles Edling's house, in 1987, and called it their offices. Though cramped, the PQT Company would use his 5 acre lot and rent the adjoining 10 acres as their distribution center for the next 9 years, shipping trees all across the United States, Mexico and Canada.

After years of shipping quality Christmas trees to our customers, the PQT Company set its goal to become a "One Stop Shopping" place for the retailers. We acquired the Superior Christmas Tree Stand Company and we added a full line of wreaths, garland and Spruce tops. We also added balers, netting, bags and tags. Several items have been added over the years to better serve our customers and make their retail lots more profitable.

As the company continued to grow, it was apparent that we needed more room. In 1996, the PQT Company built an office and warehouse on our 235-acre farm on the Rum River. Over the past decade both Charles Edling and Russ Almendinger have retired, leaving Will to carry on the tradition of quality and service that was instituted in the early years of the PQT Company.

The PQT Company currently has over 1200 acres of quality trees in production. Though a great deal of these trees are the main stays balsam and fraser fir, scotch and white pine. The PQT Company has also expanded into exotics such as canaan fir, Korean fir, meyeri spruce, fir crosses and many others.

We still have a few retail lots in the metropolitan area to keep a pulse of the consumer and to watch for trends in an ever-changing industry.

Quality and service have been the core principals on which the PQT Company was founded. We take great pride in what we do and the quality of products we ship. We understand that one our goals is to make our customers profitable but more importantly we understand that every tree we ship will be a part of a families Christmas tradition.

Once again, we at the PQT Company hope that you find this website informative and helpful and would like to thank you for promoting the Real Tree industry. We look forward to assisting you in the coming year and wish you the best in the coming season.