Client Stories

Downs Energy was founded in 1940 when Elvin Downs became a wholesale distributor for Standard Oil Co. in Corona, California. In 1975, Elvin’s son, John, and his wife Catherine, assumed leadership of the Company and introduced a “key lock” system for around-the-clock fuel sales at unattended sites, a precursor to today’s cardlock facilities. During the 1980s, their children, Mike and Sherry, joined the company, helping to cement the family legacy. In 1989, Downs Energy became a member of the then newly established nationwide Commercial Fueling Network (CFN), beginning a long-standing partnership that continues to this day.

Mike Downs became President of the Company in 1992, and he and Sherry continued to expand the business by opening three additional cardlock sites in the 1990s and acquired and built two additional cardlocks over the last ten years. Under their leadership, the Company also focused on further developing its delivered fuels and lubricants distribution businesses, which deliver fuels along with Phillips 66 and Petro-Canada branded lubricants across Southern California.

Pri Mar is a third-generation, family-owned and operated business that was founded by Harry Priebe and his brother in 1928 as a distributor of petroleum products to farm, industrial, and home heating customers. In 1972, Harry Priebe’s son-in-law, L. Richard Marzke, took over the company and merged the two surnames together to create Pri Mar Petroleum. Pri Mar’s first convenience store opened in Stevensville, Michigan in 1976. It was one of the first convenience stores in the area, and the success of this store led to the conversion of other gasoline service stations into convenience stores. L. Richard Marzke’s son, Kurt Marzke, joined Pri Mar as the General Manager in 1984 and was soon followed by his brother Craig in 1989, his brother Chris in 1997, and his brother Kevin in 2006. Today, Pri Mar has grown to service all of southwestern Michigan through its retail stores and fuels distribution network and employs approximately 120 team members. The company remains family-owned under the leadership of Kurt Marzke, Chief Executive Officer; Craig Marzke, Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer; and Kevin Marzke, Vice President & Chief Technology Officer.

Cary Oil Company was founded in 1959 by Harry Stephenson, operating a single tankwagon delivering home heating oil throughout the town of Cary, North Carolina. Over the next several decades, Cary began offering a full slate of branded motor fuels and further expanded its geographic reach across the southeastern United States. As its wholesale distribution network continued to extend into the southwest and parts of the midwestern U.S., Cary also began operating convenience stores in its home state of North Carolina, branding these locations with its proprietary Breeze Thru Markets imaging. The Breeze Thru network consisted of 15 stores, selling BP, 76, and Amoco branded fuels and served many local communities throughout North Carolina.

E.J. Pope & Son is a third-generation, family-owned and operated business with a rich history in Mt. Olive, North Carolina. The Company was founded in 1919 by Emmett Pope as a coal hauling business, and in 1938 home heating oil distribution was added to their service offerings. Pope opened its first Handy Mart branded convenience store in 1975 and successfully grew the brand into a highly recognized regional chain serving communities across eastern North Carolina. In the early 1980s, the Company established Pope Transport to provide fuel hauling services to its company-operated stores and third-party customers in the region. Under the current leadership of E.J. “Judson” Pope III, both businesses experienced significant growth, culminating in the sale of 36 Handy Mart branded convenience stores to GPM Investments, LLC in 2021. With the sale of Pope Transport to Petroleum Transport Company, Inc., the Pope family marks its full exit from the fuels industry, concluding a long and distinguished chapter as one of North Carolina’s leading petroleum marketers, convenience retail operators, and fuel haulers.

The Company was founded in 1960 by Elliot “Buck” Cato and provided refined fuels distribution service to local families, businesses, and farms. Throughout several decades of growth led by Elliot’s son-in-law, Michael Abercrombie, and subsequently Michael (Mike) Abercrombie, Jr., the Company expanded into retail convenience stores, wholesale fuels distribution, propane, and QSRs. Cato has since grown to become one of the Delmarva Peninsula’s largest petroleum marketers, operating 19 convenience stores, and 26 Arby’s, Popeye’s, and Subway QSRs while supplying motor fuels to wholesale accounts in MD, DE, PA, and VA. The Company’s home heat division experienced significant growth in recent years, expanding to a customer base of over 5,000 residential and commercial accounts. For nearly 65 years, the Cato family and its over 700 dedicated employees and loyal associates have provided best-in-class service to local communities throughout the Delmarva Peninsula.

Founded in the early 1920s by St. Albans businessman, Stephen Brooks Collins, S.B. Collins, Inc. is a local, family-owned petroleum distributor that has been serving the local community and surrounding area in Vermont for over 100 years. In 1963, Emanuel (Pete) Jolley purchased SBC from Stephen Collins and continued to grow its operations. In 1976, Pete’s sons, Bob and Bruce, expanded the family business by converting company-owned, full-service locations into convenience stores. They established a new partnership, Jolley Associates, to operate the stores under the c-store brand name “Short Stop” and in 2001, the company underwent a store-wide branding initiative that incorporated the “Jolley” logo. In 2011, SBC diversified their portfolio even further and purchased Clarence Brown, Inc., the oldest family-owned heating oil delivery business in the region, which was headquartered in St. Albans, VT.  The late Robert (Bob) Jolley and his wife Mary Ellen were instrumental in growing the retail side of the business, and over the last decade-plus, under the leadership of Bruce Jolley (President), Samantha Peake (CFO), Shawn Bartlett (General Manager, Jolley Associates, LLC) and Steve Smith (General Manager, S.B. Collins, Inc.), SBC has flourished and maintained a premier status in all markets and customer segments from which it operates.

Andretti Petroleum Group was founded in 1997 when racing icons Mario Andretti, Michael Andretti, long-time Andretti advisor John Caponigro, and Texaco executive M.J. Castelo launched a startup Texaco wholesale business in northern California. Mario Andretti had always been enamored with the fuels business after having worked at his uncle’s gas station with his twin brother Aldo just three days after moving from Italy to America at the age of 15. In 1998, the nascent business developed its flagship Texaco facility in downtown San Francisco, which featured an Andretti SpeedMart convenience store, an Andretti Winning Finish car wash, a Burger King, and the first Starbucks integrated into a convenience store.

Santmyer was founded in 1952 when Myron Santmyer opened a Gulf service station in Dalton, OH, and became a Gulf distributor. In 1980, Terry Santmyer (Myron’s son) purchased the business, which at the time was comprised of just two tank wagons and four employees. Terry began building the Company into a leading full-service petroleum marketer that today employs more than 175 Ohioans. Santmyer purchased a Marathon jobbership in 1999, and in 2012, Zach Santmyer (Terry’s son) became president of the Company. Under Zach’s leadership, Santmyer expanded into propane, developed the Red Rover brand, became a Chevron-branded lubricants distributor, added the Sunoco and Exxon brands to offer customers a more comprehensive slate of fuels, and leveraged technology to modernize the Company.