Barry Marlow is unique among the majority of today's petroleum marketers-he does NOT have any retail outlets and he is NEW to the business. A first generation marketer, Barry's company is only six years old.

Miles Petroleum Inc., headquartered in Hemlock just west of Saginaw, concentrates on bulk deliveries to airports, schools, government units, construction companies and local businesses, including numerous farming operations in the area.

"Everybody has his strong suit and I believe you should play to that strength," said Barry. "Retail operations and running transports are not my niche. I've concentrated on bulk deliveries and lubricants. I go back to the old motto of 'people want service.' If I can give our customers good service, then we'll prosper."

Playing to his strong suit seems to be paying off. Barry estimates that Miles Petroleum will end 2002 with volume at about 5 million gallons and propane at 900,000 gallons. This is up from 1.8 million just 2 years ago. The recent growth has been a little surprising and overwhelming to Barry and his wife, Liat, who runs the office of Miles Petroleum.

Barry and Liat met on the Internet 3 years ago and married in November 1999. Liat is a Saginaw native and has experience in managing rental properties, investments and manufacturing. It's been a good business combination with Barry's work experience and background in agriculture.

Barry Marlow grew up on a farm in Northwest Ohio, graduated from The Ohio State University with a B.S. in Agricultural Economics, managed a grain elevator for 5 years, and worked as a credit manager for 1 year. In 1989 he moved to Michigan to run the fuel, propane and oil division of B & W Co-op in Breckenridge.

"It sounded interesting to me," said Barry. "And being in an agricultural area I knew I could do it and thought it would be a good fit for me."

During his tenure a B & W Co-op, the fuel department expanded to include a new 24-hour card lock system, a new bulk plant, five full time fuel routes and three full time propane routes.

"I truly enjoyed the fuel business and I liked the mid-Michigan area. Unfortunately, I wasn't happy with the direction B & W Co-op was going. I wanted to go out on my own and operate my own petroleum company."

With this in mind Barry left B & W in 1994 and began working for Rice Oil Co. in Saginaw with the intention of buying Rice's existing fuel business. "After two years with Rice and several offers to buy this part of his business, I decided it would be best to start from scratch, and on September 1, 1996 I formed Miles Petroleum Inc."

The kernel of Barry's new company came from about two hundred farm accounts that were loyal to Barry, plus a 16-year-old pedal truck he purchased from R & R Ready Mix in Hemlock. He also purchased a bulk plant and 180- customer fuel route from R&R, plus a bulk plant from Oswald Oil Co. in St. Charles.

"I had a 1987 tank put on a 1985 chassis at Horner Equipment, and Miles Petroleum was off and running," said Barry.

The name of the company has a lot of meaning for Barry even though he didn't strictly name it after himself. "When I started my own company, I didn't want to call it Marlow Oil Co. It seemed that a lot of people have taken their last name and added oil company to it. That's okay, but I grew up in Ohio and I don't have family here, so most people wouldn't know who Marlow Oil was," explained Barry. "I figured that the reputation and name recognition would come along with good service and good products. Therefore I took a name that meant something to me and added petroleum to it."

Miles is Barry's middle name, the name of his grandfather, and also the name of one of his twin son's. And Barry is also "Miles the Clown" when he performs at area events and in parades.

But six months into his new venture, Barry found himself in the middle of a lawsuit with his former employer alleging that he improperly took customers with him when he left to form Miles Petroleum. For the next 3 years Miles Petroleum operated at status quo with plans for growth and expansion taking a far back seat to the immediate problem of the lawsuit.

"The lawsuit stemmed from the contention that I had taken business, but the fact was that these were customers that I had developed long before I started to work for this company and they simple followed me when I started Miles Petroleum," said Barry. However, the real problem of the lawsuit was that new business at Miles Petroleum was at a standstill. "I didn't feel I could expand or even focus on the business until the lawsuit was over."

In January 2000, the lawsuit was finally dismissed. At that time, Miles Petroleum had four employees, 1.8 million gallons of tank truck deliveries and 91,000 gallons of oil sales. "But I was ready to take our plans off the back burner and step things up a notch."

In September of that year, Barry hired a second route driver and purchased a fuel truck from Paxson Oil Co. In December 2000, Miles Propane Inc. was formed. "Our entrance into propane came after a two year preparation period, during which Mark and Dave Coyne from Coyne Oil Corp. helped us tremendously," said Barry. If it weren't for Mark and Dave, I wouldn't be in the propane business."

In 2001, Barry told the bank he expected to set about 200 propane tanks in the first year. "We ended up setting 320 in 10 months."

By December 2001, Miles Petroleum Inc., had grown to 2.5 million gallons of tank truck deliveries, 550,000 gallons of propane and 100,000 gallons of lubricants.

The company's single greatest growth spurt came in January of this year when Miles Petroleum purchased the fuel department of B & W Co-op. "This has been exciting for me personally," said Barry. "It's hard to believe that I had this opportunity to purchase a company that I was so familiar with. I not only knew the equipment, I was familiar with the drivers and the customers. It has been a perfect fit for us."

The acquisition gave Miles Petroleum bulk plants in Breckenridge, Hemlock and St. Charles with over 350 thousand gallons of storage. The company's marketing area is central Michigan, with approximately 75 percent of its business in farm accounts. "And some of these are pretty large operations in this area," said Barry. "We also go out of our way to work with the specialized farmers, those growing pickles, sugar beets, potatoes and dry beans."

In addition to his great relationship with Mark and Dave Coyne, Barry has a contract with Karbowski Oil Co. in Bay City to use their transports for hauling product, and his waste oil products are removed by Crystal Flash Partners in Grand Rapids. "This works well for me so I can concentrate on what I think I do best, delivering and servicing fuels, propane and oils," said Barry. They also sell and service equipment for handling these products.

"The last six months has been a roller coaster since buying B&W Co-op, a busy and challenging time," said Liat Marlow. "Providing service to our customers was our number one goal when we first started this company, it was our number one goal when purchasing B&W and it's still number one for us today."

"I'm really happy with where we're at with Miles Petroleum," said Barry. "My goal is to do the best job I can in my marketing area."

"We built our image on customer service and we don't want to get so big that we can't provide the kind of service that gave us a solid reputation," added Liat

Both Barry and Liat are involved in the community. Liat has played in the Saginaw Eddy Concert Band for 23 years, and she and Barry are co-chairs of the Music Boosters at the Breckenridge High School. Barry coaches basketball at Breckenridge and is a Shrine Clown (named Miles), doing parades around mid-Michigan.

"We're first generation-the new kids on the block, literally," said Barry, "but we have a lot to be proud of, and we plan to build this company on our image and reputation."

Miles Petroleum and Miles Propane are looking at the ending of 2002 with 2100 fuel/lubricant customers and 700 propane customers, which translates to 5 million gallons of tank truck deliveries, 900,000 gallons of propane and 125,000 gallons of lubricants. Not a bad start for the "new kids on the block."