It’s not easy to talk with builders, contractors, and architects when they are busy at a jobsite, so vendors in the business of selling products and services to these professionals invite them to mix and mingle, learn, and view new products at a nearby trade show and education event. Homeowners, too, present a challenge to vendors. Many homeowners are not aware of all the home improvement products that are available to them. So, the vendors invite members of the public, too, to attend the event and enjoy a day of viewing exhibits and product demonstrations. Reaching those two audiences was the goal of the first South Georgia Home Showcase, which was held February 12-13 at the University of Georgia (UGA) Tifton Campus Conference Center in...

Propane isn’t just for home heating, and a propane marketer isn’t just someone who delivers fuel in the wintertime. Those are two messages spotlighted in summer events organized by three different propane marketers. These events included cookouts, demo days, an up-close display of a propane bobtail, free giveaways, a customer appreciation breakfast, and a charity golf tournament. BLOSSMAN GAS Blossman Gas, the seventh-largest propane dealer in the country with locations in 16 Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic states, encourages each of its branches to hold at least one event annually. Some branches do more, often scheduling events to correspond with holidays or community activities. “We have a few focuses this summer,” says Emily Willis, director of marketing at Blossman Gas and Alliance AutoGas. “One is to get...

As Kristy Richardson prepares to assume leadership as the CEO of the propane business founded by her parents, the second-generation business owner’s first priority is to continue the practices that made the company such a success in the first place. Steve and Shelly Brown founded the business, Western Propane Service, in Santa Maria, Calif., in 1988. They, along with their children, Kristy (Brown) Richardson and Mike Brown, who were respectively 11 and 8 years old at the time, had picked up and relocated from Gilroy, Calif. They had a business plan to start a locally owned and operated propane company with the philosophy of providing customers with fair prices and excellent customer service. In the beginning, Steve was setting tanks, delivering propane, and selling door...

Together with all the other responsibilities that come with operating a propane company, Wes Welch simultaneously maintained his commitment to the Army Reserve for 21 years. Today, the third-generation business owner and his wife and fellow veteran, April, continue to manage and operate WelchGas, the nearly 70-year-old company founded by his grandfather and later run by his father. “I got out of the Army in 1987,” says Wes Welch. “I moved back home and went to work for my dad. He started me out painting tanks, driving a bobtail, doing service work, setting tanks, piping houses, etc. About six months into it, I had serious thoughts about going back into the Army. “I decided to give another six months, then another six months. Thirty years...

Tankless water heater manufacturer Rinnai America Corp. and one of its dealers have completed Rinnai’s largest commercial project. And, most importantly, it is fueled by propane. The success of this project has led the customer to consider using Rinnai appliances in other applications, and has led other, similar businesses to add propane-fueled Rinnai appliances as well. How large was the project? It involves a 19-building resort and 179 Rinnai appliances. The resort, Ruby’s Inn, includes three hotels, 700 rooms, three restaurants, an RV park, a campground, three swimming pools, and a laundry facility that does 19 tons of laundry per day. Teams from Ruby’s Inn, Rinnai, and propane sales and service provider Blue Star Gas worked together to develop, install, and maintain a water heater...

When Mike Rutherford joined his family’s business, the first thing he did was go out and meet the customers. Tasked with promoting a new sector of the business — gas grills — he took along a display trailer and performed hundreds of demonstrations. Twenty years later, he is president of the family-owned company, Covington, Ga.-based Rutherford Equipment. The kind of product knowledge and relationship-building he demonstrated early in his career remain important to the way the company does business today. “When I joined the company out of college in 1998, my dad, Randy, saw we needed to diversify and branch out into other, related products,” Rutherford says. “I was tasked to help grow the consumer products side of the business — grills and other gas appliances. Before that, we were a...

As one might expect of the principals of a business named Local Peoples Gas, the three siblings who own and operate the company place great stock in the value of community. Like their parents, who founded the enterprise, the second-generation owners and operators believe it is important to buy locally and to treat customers like family. “We believe that being a family-owned and -operated business is the thing that distinguishes our company from others,” says Dana Ferguson, one of the three siblings. “We have the privilege of being established in communities that support small and local businesses, thankfully. And we are active in supporting other local businesses as well — we choose to buy our morning biscuits at the corner store, our cattle feed from the mill...

As hundreds of members of the propane industry were preparing to travel to Washington, D.C. for Propane Days, the annual advocacy event held in the nation’s capital, there was plenty of legislative and regulatory activity happening on the state and local levels too. BPN surveyed seven leaders of state associations and found they have been working on a wide variety of issues that affect propane marketers. When asked about the issues that are hot in their states right now, these industry advocates highlighted ratepayer subsidies for natural gas expansion, promotion of the benefits of propane, spring road weight restrictions, advocacy of a state assessment program, propane emergency bills, and even a constitutional convention to rewrite a state’s constitution. NATURAL GAS EXPANSION The state associations in...