consolidation in heating oil distribution,
it's increasingly hard to spot an
independent family firm. But if you look
to the Berkshire town of Newbury,
you'll find Marsh Fuels.
the line `A family business since 1902' as
part of their logo.
says MD Carrie Marsh, who took the
reins of the company from her dad, Bert,
about six years ago. "We give traditional
service with traditional values and have
established a reputation for quick and
reliable delivery. We supply heating oil,
kerosene, bottled gas and coal."
Carrie might be MD, but she's also a
busy delivery driver, as is her husband
Dave and godfather Bill Webb (who has
clocked up more than 40 years with the
firm). The two Marsh Fuels tankers tend
to operate within a tight 10 mile radius
of the yard.
because we're at our most profitable
within our home area and it has helped
us to build and maintain a reputation
for fast and reliable deliveries," says
Carrie, who became the fourth
generation of Marshes in the family firm
when she joined on All Fools' Day,
1 April, 1997, as a trainee boiler
engineer. "There were plenty of jokes
flying that day," she recalls. So she
answered doubters by qualifying as an
engineer and then as a delivery driver
and now she's a familiar figure in a
tanker around Newbury.
why did her father hand it on to her? "I
joined the firm after commuting to
London. Dad was fed up of training up
boiler engineers just to leave and start
their own business, and I was fed up of
the London trudge. I flippantly said `I'll
do it!' And 24 hours later, dad accepted
the gauntlet!" When her father offered
her the chance to run the company, he
told her she was capable of doing it
just one of many jobs to her. "I'm a
practical person. I can do any job that
comes up. On any day I can be on the oil
tanker in the morning, coal in the early
afternoon, back at the desk doing
paperwork and then on the nursery run
to pick up the twins."
trait traceable to her great
grandmother, Henrietta, of whom
Carrie's dad Bert says: "If an account fell
into arrears, the client faced the wrath
formidable woman who didn't mince
her words. Her reputation was folk-lore
and there were few debts."
the FTA, and Carrie decided they should
join FPS when she noticed at a meeting
that she was the only one round the
table who wasn't an FPS member. "We'll
try it and see what we get out of it," she
says.
Henry Marsh, who came from
London in 1902 with his horse
and cart, selling coal door to
door. In the early days, Henry
would sit up front and greet
each customer personally, while
his mate would deliver coal off
the cart. The company's first
motorised vehicle was bought in
1921 a Ford `tin lizzy'.
wagon and his son, Fred, was recalled from the army to take over the running of
this essential service.
haulage of solid fuels. The business grew healthily and in 1968, the reins were
handed to his son, Bert. Marsh Fuels began oil deliveries in 1973. As customers
switched from coal to oil, the company was able to offer a reliable service that
has grown to far outsell the coal business on which the firm was founded.