Reputation matters: Community involvement key as Berico marks 100 years as a family business

By David Hill – Reporter, Triad Business Journal Jun 20, 2024

 

As if keeping the shareholders happy isn’t enough pressure on a company’s management, the responsibility is even greater when the shareholders depend on income from their investment for their livelihoods.

Imagine if those shareholders are family. Imagine if those very shareholders laid the foundation for where you are today.

That’s the case for Berico, the Greensboro fuel, HVAC and lubricants company that turned 100 this year. And it happened not just once, but twice.

The first was nearly 40 years ago when Tom Berry, grandson of founder W.N. Berry, took on ownership with partner John Fuquay as Tom’s father, Joe, transitioned out. In return for his stake, he would make payments to members of the previous generation. A lot was riding on his success.

“I promise you, it makes you get up every morning and go to work, to be sure,” Tom recalled in a recent interview. “The rest of my family depended upon me, Tom, making this payment so that that they – Joe, mom and dad — could survive and live and have medical coverage and live in comfort, etc., and then have a little something leftover to pass on to siblings.”

Photos help convey the century-long journey and evolution of what is today known as Greensboro-based Berico, a provider of propane, heating oils, fuels, lubricants, motor oils and HVAC services.

The next transition came in 2017 as Tom’s son Will Berry began buying in. He’s now the president and fourth-generation Berry in the company’s C-suite.

The company’s ability to work through those transitions and prosper for a century compelled Triad Business Journal to name Berico the winner of the 2024 Family Business Heritage Award presented by the Triad Business Journal. The Heritage Award recognizes sustained growth, ethical business practices, and family businesses that have demonstrated a strong commitment to developing their workforce, along with innovation, adaptability and resilience.

Tom and Will Berry will be featured in a “fireside-like” chat Aug. 22 as part of TBJ’s Family Business Awards at the Colonnade at Revolution Mill in Greensboro.

 

13 children, 13 trucks

Berico dates to a coal-delivery company started by William Nathan “W.N.” Berry. The story passed down is W.N. had a job with a railroad and began picking up pieces of coal that had fallen off trains, hauling the coal around in a wheelbarrow and selling it to his neighbors in Greensboro for cooking and heating. It grew into a viable business, and he and wife Elizabeth did so well they had a truck for each of their children – 13 in all.

To be clear, it wasn’t a truck for each child. Most of the siblings went on to other things, from teaching biology to the priesthood, practicing law, medicine and other fields. Son Joe, though, took it over eventually, and as the heating and cooling industry evolved, so did Berry Coal, adding fuel oil, which eventually became its main product, and led to the renaming of the company. Propane is now the largest part.

With a focus on reliable service, being a good place to work, and giving back to the community, the business grew steadily, often incorporating competitors — some of which Berico saved during lean times by providing fuel to sell to home customers during shortages. It added regional operations in Burlington and Eden as well as throughout Guilford County. It obtained a position at a major pipeline terminal in Greensboro and named the wholesale fuel oil company Gateco.

More recently, Berico began supplying a line of lubricants for automotive and industrial customers, and greatly expanded its service business into a full HVAC installation and repair division.

Trying to make more of the service business was a switch for the company and the industry, but a challenge Will Berry took on.

“The traditional oil company is that the service department is kind of the stepchild of the business and ‘Just keep your customers happy, let’s let the money come in with the sale of the fuel product, whatever that may be,'” he said.

“But over the last 25 years or so, maybe a little bit longer, the desire was to make that a profit center. And that is a very challenging business. So that was one of my projects coming in, to help expand the HVAC side of it.”

His father credits Will for doing what seemed impossible with service. “He has made a championship department out of it.”

Berico has received numerous state and national awards in the industry. It’s also known in some circles for its entertainingly self-deprecating commercials that usually star Will. “We’re accountable each and every day, not only to our predecessors, but our employees to continue to grow and make it worthwhile,” Will said. “I’ve been lucky enough with the foundations of all this before us to build upon it, expand and diversify.”

 

Generational decisions

For a company that’s kept going and stayed in the family for a century, the transition wasn’t always so clear.

In Tom’s case, he had worked in the business growing up, starting as a service technician helper as a teenager. After college at UNC-Chapel Hill — he also got an MBA — he had a role as a company employee and started an insulation sideline that did well and was eventually sold off. Then one day his father, Joe, approached him: He needed help running the business. It was time for a decision.

He’d face a serious pay cut. But he’d watched how his father, Joe, had not only shepherded the business but had built upon his father’s work to burnish the company’s reputation in the community. Joe had transferred from the University of Notre Dame to the U.S. Naval Academy at the outbreak of World War II and became a Navy pilot in the Pacific.

After the war, he took over from his father to run the Berry company, later buying it with his brother Jack, then taking over Jack’s share. Joe, who died in 1996, was recognized as a community leader in arenas such as desegregation and civil rights, prison ministries, the Greensboro Merchants Association, and heating assistance. His News & Record obituary noted he lost customers over his desegregation stance, and earned a

Brotherhood Citation from what was then the National Conference of Christians and Jews, now North Carolina for Community and Justice.

“It was because of that heritage that I chose to stay in the business,” Tom said.

A generation later, the same factor played a role. Will had gotten an MBA, too, at Michigan State, then entered real estate and did well. But the traveling wore on him, and he saw colleagues’ away-from-work lives suffering. There were divorces. He would get back home after a week exhausted. And he heard from his father. He made clear it was Will’s decision, and he acknowledged there would be, again, a big pay cut, something to think about. But there were other considerations.

Tom recounted the conversation: “‘You gotta realize this heritage thing and name is significant. You go in the apartment business over there and you’re gonna be Will Berry working for Timbuktu company or whatever. But you work for Berico, that means something to people, I always thought.’”

 

Proud to give back

Getting personal and family time back was part of the decision for Will. Another was tapping the company’s reputation for community mindedness.

Will credits Tom and his grandfather and great-grandfather for taking on leadership roles in Greensboro and Guilford County’s business and civic spheres, from helping start what is now the Guilford Merchants Association, to prison ministries, to starting an annual warmth campaign with the Salvation Army. It’s hit about $75,000 a year in donations, which the company matches. It helps people who don’t have the means to heat their homes in the winter.

Tom has also been a state wildlife commissioner and was a founding board member of the North Carolina Wildlife Habitat Foundation, Will noted.

It also extends inward. Many people in supervisory roles can earn significant bonuses, and when the staff of new acquisitions join, it seeks to honor benefits like longer vacation packages. It proactively has paid longevity bonuses. Especially as large industrial employers like Toyota enter the Triad market, it’s more important than ever to be an employer of choice, Will said.

When he signed on, Will recounted, Tom took him aside and explained push-pull leadership: He laid a string on a desk and told him to move it first by pushing, then try pulling. One worked; the other didn’t. The point was to lead by example, and to drive home that lead roles are earned, not given because of family connections.

“If you get a silver spoon in there, they’re driving a Mercedes, work half a day every day is one thing. But when you’re coming in and you’re supplying good company benefits, you’re treated with respect, you treat them like you’d want to be treated, then that whole concept of silver spoon just is non-existent,” Tom said.

“A philosophy that I have always said is that happy employees and happy customers make a successful business,” Will said. “And in that order.”

 

Colleagues, family, friends

Another factor was how the then-leadership worked. Tom strongly credits his longtime partner, John Fuquay. Not a member of the Berry family, Fuquay, who died in 2022, was a pivotal leader in the transition, having worked with both Joe and Tom and serving as Tom’s partner in ownership and management for many years.

Ten years Tom’s senior, Fuquay is described as a steadying influence between Berry- family generations, building the company’s image, and seeing opportunities. Among other things, he’s credited with developing and growing a wholesale and fleet fuel and lubricants business known as Gateco.

“John’s baby was Gateco,” Will said. “And he expanded that to a very high reputation; it’s really well known. Drivers want to work for us, we’re reliable. We’re not always going to be the cheapest in the book but we’re going to make sure we’ve got product for our very loyal customers, and we’re gonna get it to you on time and you’re not going to run out.”

Fuquay is also credited with building the company’s reputation among customers, employees and within the fuels industry. When Will joined industry groups, people from companies in other parts of the country would ask him about Fuquay. Even more, as the Berrys describe it, he set an example of how to lead and get along in business relationships. Will lost his grandfather early and credits Fuquay as being a grandfather figure. It’s clear Will picked up lessons just from being around Fuquay and his father.

“To this day he says ‘John’s the best partner I’ve ever had, like, we never had a conflict,'” Will said. “There were times that they would maybe disagree in decisions, but there were their silos. ‘Hey, John, that’s your decision, take care of that, and vice versa;

Tom, that’s your baby, take care of that.’ And I got to watch that, in my early age, to see that interaction.”

The lesson applies today.

“We walk out of the doors in his office every day, still father and son, a best-friends kind of thing.”

 

Berico timeline

1924 – William Nathan Berry founds Berry Coal Co.

1954 – Joe & Jack Berry purchase company from W.N. Berry.

1970 – Joe Berry purchases company from Jack Berry during transition from coal to heating oil era

1973 – Gateco enters partnership with Taylor Oil Co., engaging with Colonial and Plantation Pipeline

1981 – Company purchases Knight Oil Co. of Eden

1986 – Tom Berry & John Fuquay purchase company from Joe Berry

1990 – Company purchases Vanstory Oil Co. of Greensboro, as well as Alamance Oil Co. of Burlington. Alamance later diversifies into motor oils and as a lubricant wholesaler.

2006 – Gift of Warmth is founded, raising over $1.2M, helping over 1,200 families since inception.

2007 – Knight Oil Co. merges with Carolina Propane to form “Carolina Fuels” and emerging as a Triad leader in propane delivery.

2011 – Company commits to expanding HVAC services in Triad.  2017 – Will Berry enters partnership

2021 – Berico, Carolina Fuels, and Alamance Oil Co. unite name to “Berico”  2024 – 100 Years and beyond

 

Acquisitions 

Knight Oil Co. — 1981

Johnston Oil Co. — 1986  Vanstory Oil — 1990

Alamance Oil Co. —1990

Carolina Propane (Abercrombie) — 2007  McBane Brown HVAC – 2013

Mitchell Heating & Air — 2015  Lancaster Service Co. – 2016

Willis & Willis Heating & Air – 2016  Pickard Oil Co. — 2017

Kellam Oil Co. — 2017  Routh Oil Co. — 2019

Hutchens-Rentz Oil Co. — 2021  Fulp Oil Co. – 2022

Thomas Brother’s Oil Co. – 2022

 

Berico’s community Involvement

 Gift of Warmth

North Carolina Petroleum and Convenience Store Marketers Association Southeast Propane Alliance

National Propane Gas Association

National Oil Research Association Greensboro Chamber of Commerce

Guilford Merchant Association – Chairman (Joe Berry, Thomas A. Berry) NC Wildlife Commissioner – Thomas A Berry

North Carolina Wildlife Habitation Foundation – Board Member (Thomas A. Berry) Boy Scouts of America – Local Fundraising Board (William J. Berry)

Truist Advisory Board – member (William J. Berry) GTCC – HVAC Advisory Board (William J. Berry)

Guilford Workforce Development Board – (William J. Berry) CHS Propane Advisory Board – Lenny Hall