_________________________
50th ANNIVERSARY
Adjusting To Market Changes
Over A Half-Century

	50th ~ Established 1957 A & A Pump Company Bayard Pump and Tank Co. Don Wood, Inc. Don's Service Station Equipment J K Pajarinen & Co. J-8 Equipment Company JEMKO
	In 1957, Slim Olsen's 43-pump self-service station was the “world's largest.” The sign on the canopy was meant to draw the attention of motorists.

Three of you are the founders of your companies, and all of you are still working at it.
Don Wood: Yes, I started in the industry when I was five!

Mike Blomström: That's right.

Armand DiRienzo: I'm coming up on my 83rd birthday and come in to work at Bayard Pump and Tank Co. every day for a few hours.

Mike Blomström: I'm 80.

Don Wood: I'm here for probably 10 to 12 hours, but I'm younger than these guys. I just turned 75. I hit the ground running in the morning and come back with ideas we could be doing for Don Wood, Inc.'s customers.

President William Reinhart, A & A Pump Company (San Antonio, TX)

How did you get started in this business?
Don Wood: My dad worked for Standard of Kentucky, and I grew up around all this. He told me not to get into this industry, said the business was too hard, don't do it. To this day, I don't know if he was trying to tell me to join his company or not. He knew I'd jump at a challenge, which is exactly what I did.

Mike Blomström: J K Pajarinen was established in 1957 to give service to the Finnish fuel distribution network. We've built up a nationwide maintenance network for petrol pumps.

Carrie Tew: My husband and I purchased Don's Service Station Equipment 15 years ago. I worked as the bookkeeper until he died only five years after we bought the company. With four children ranging in age from 5 to 13, I had to make this work.

William Reinhart: My father-in-law, C.J. Keunstler, worked on the gas pumps for a major oil company for 17 years. The company decided it would be cheaper to contract that work out to private enterprise. Dad resigned from the company, bought a truck and started contracting for Gulf Oil Company with his new business, A & A Pump Company. I joined him in 1959. Today we have 21 employees.

J-8 Equipment Company President Fred Seymour (right) and Executive Vice President Tom Green consider the mountains outside of Denver, Colorado, their conference room.

Edward Tropper: I purchased JEMKO in 1975. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

Tom Green: Fred Seymour and I bought J-8 Equipment in 1991. There was no service entity in-house and today we have seven technicians. I guess you could call us a “family” business as Fred and I are married to identical twin sisters.

Are you planning for your succession?
Don Wood: Yes, I am. We put together a plan last year and we are training two employees for leadership positions.

William Reinhart: The third generation is now running the company. A & A Pump has always been a family-focused business. My mother worked here, as did my wife. My son Buddy is the general manager and my daughter Jacque does the financials and HR. Both of their spouses work here, too. I'm looking forward to the fourth generation in here, and I hope I live long enough to see it.

President Armand DiRienzo, Bayard Pump and Tank Co. (Bristol, PA)

Bayard Pump and Tank Co. in 1960.

With this great push to have fewer people doing more work, how do you maximize efficiencies within the company?
Armand DiRienzo: My general manager, Stephen S. Muckin Jr., points out the difficulties inherent to our business: There are a lot of emergencies, and often we juggle employees off one job and send them to another to handle what comes up. We group technicians geographically so they can cover many tasks in a given area.

Tom Green: Our average employee tenure is bumping on 14-15 years. They know all the facets of the business, so they're able to help out in areas where needed.

Ed Tropper: It's hard sometimes to be efficient in an industry driven by the customer base. We're trying to cut back on extra trips because of parts needed at a service site.

Carrie Tew: Sometimes employees like to do things their own way, which may not be the most efficient way for the company. We're developing standardized procedures across the board.

Mike Blomström: We maximize the efficiency of our employees by training narrower and deeper.

What's the single biggest market change you've had to adjust to?
Carrie Tew: Liability. Seems like we're held more and more accountable.

Ed Tropper: Over the last couple years, we've been moving away from service stations toward the industrial market, including manufacturing, municipal installations and anything using fuel tanks for generators, boilers, etc. We're getting a better return than what we were getting from the oil companies.

“There is little success if you don't love what you're doing,” says J. Donald Wood, president of Don Wood, Inc. (Orlando, FL). “I love dirt! I love digging in it, shoveling it and putting it back into the ground.”

Tom Green: The loss of Tokheim marked a major change in our product line.

Mike Blomström: The biggest market change for us was when Finland joined the European Union. This brought much more competition.

President Carrie Tew, Don's Service Station Equipment (Idaho Falls, ID)

William Reinhart: Automation. Going from everything being done manually to everything being done by computer.

Armand DiRienzo: There were two: The implementation of self-serve, and the tank regulations that went into effect in 1998. That changed a whole lot in this industry.

Don Wood: Leaving the major oil companies for commercial markets. The oil companies tell you what to do because they've studied up on it. The commercials don't want to know anything about the regulations; they want someone they can count on to take care of all that.

Of what are you most proud?
Mike Blomström: J K Pajarinen & Co. has 17 authorized service companies in Finland. In the '90s, we opened offices in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. We've also delivered turnkey service stations to the former Soviet Union, including modular gas stations to Russia.

Tom Green: One of the biggest challenges J-8 faces is the number of equipment dealers vs. the demand for product. The competition is intense. We plan everything around the success of our ability to sell good equipment to our customers, and we've solidified over the years.

Ed Tropper: We are geared quite a bit to aboveground tanks and have a large amount of expertise in this area. JEMKO is the only company in the area certified to the Pennsylvania requirement.

Carrie Tew: We've survived. Five years ago, there were seven companies in our territory and now there are two.

“Every day brings something new, and this business is always fun,” says Mike Blomström, whose company, J K Pajarinen & Co. (Helsinki, Finland), has customers in Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the former Soviet Union countries.	This pump and Mike Blomström are both 80 years old.
ANNIVERSARY FACT There are many challenges over the course of a company's lifetime. The top five named by PEI companies celebrating an anniversary this year are: Finding and keeping employees Keeping profits at a decent level Dealing with regulatory issues Maintaining market share Keeping suppliers happy.

Why did you survive?
Carrie Tew: I make sure that we offer quality at a fair price, no matter what. Also, everyone who works at Don's Service Station Equipment, regardless of whether they are in construction, administration or service, is a salesperson.

President Ed Tropper is proud that JEMKO (Erie, PA) is the only company certified in his territory to the strict Pennsylvania certification requirements.

Don Wood: Don Wood, Inc. has had 50 years without a liability claim. I am very persnickety.

Armand DiRienzo: Bayard Pump and Tank has survived for 50 years in a tough business. We have long-term employees, some of whom have been with the company for 20 years.

William Reinhart: A & A Pump competes against some of the finest people who've ever been in this business. They are a tremendous group, a very select group, not your everyday business owner. I'm proud to compete against this quality and succeed.

What do you see as the future of the petroleum equipment business?
Don Wood: I think there will be lots of changes. The “good old boy mechanics” will go away as the industry becomes more technical. College degrees will be required, and customers will expect technicians to be more polished. Biodiesel, hydrogen and other alternative fuels will be commonplace.

Carrie Tew: As the amount of information and regulations increase, along with the increasing liability, it will be harder for a small business to keep up. Right now, you almost need an in-house environmentalist.

Mike Blomström: Alternative fuels.

Anniversary Photos Pictures from companies' Milestone Anniversary celebrations ALSO: More Distributor Anniversaries

Tom Green: I agree. The advent of biofuels has already made a measurable change in our business.

William Reinhart: The small business is disappearing with all the acquisitions. I think, though, that the drastic changes have occurred during the last 20 years, and I don't see a big change taking place in the retail fuel business for the next four or five years. That being said, new products are coming out every day, and it seems like each is better than the one before. I recently read that a product is being developed that puts gas in a car without the driver ever having to get out of the car.

Like the gentleman in a uniform who used to come out, fill the tank, check the oil and wash my windows?
William Reinhart: Not exactly. This “automated attendant” only pumps gas!

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The PEI Journal • Third Quarter 2007 • Volume 1, No. 3 • Contents are Copyright © Data Key Communications, Inc.
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