SYRACUSE — Tonawanda–based NOCO Inc., a lubricant and wholesale fuel distributor that has served the Syracuse market since the 1980s, is working to expand its presence and reach in the region. The firm hopes to launch residential electricity and natural-gas service and possibly even convenience stores. The 80-year-old company got its start delivering coal […]
SYRACUSE — Tonawanda–based NOCO Inc., a lubricant and wholesale fuel distributor that has served the Syracuse market since the 1980s, is working to expand its presence and reach in the region. The firm hopes to launch residential electricity and natural-gas service and possibly even convenience stores.
The 80-year-old company got its start delivering coal door-to-door and has expanded over the years to include home energy services such as electricity, natural gas, heating oil, and propane, the NOCO Express line of convenience stores; lubricant and chemical product distribution in five states; and wholesale commercial and industrial fuel distribution and delivery.
“We evolved with the times,” says James Newman, president and part of the third generation of the Newman family to run NOCO. His grandfather, Reginald Newman, founded the company in 1933.
Over the years, Newman says, larger players such as Mobil and Ashland, which both operated refineries at one time in New York, left the market. That created opportunity for NOCO to acquire facilities and increase its market share, Newman says.
That same opportunity came along in the 1980s for NOCO to enter the Syracuse area, he says. “Our first business in the Syracuse market was a lubricant distribution business we bought.”
Today, NOCO owns and operates two facilities in the Syracuse region — a 42,000-square-foot warehouse at 4480 Steelway Blvd. S. in Clay that houses the company’s lubricant distribution business and service department, and a warehouse facility on Wolf Street in Syracuse. The company uses some of that warehouse for storage, but leases the majority of the space to Solvents & Petroleum Service, Inc. Customers in the Syracuse area include Carrier Corp., Raymond Corp. and Crucible Industries.
NOCO also does a brisk wholesale fuel business in the area, James Lee, the company’s wholesale fuel-market manager for eastern New York, says. NOCO has seen success with a fleet-fueling program that provides truck-to-truck fueling service, he says. NOCO fuels customers’ fleets during the off-hours, so the trucks are ready and waiting for drivers to hop in them and begin their day, Lee says. The end result is faster departure times and labor cost savings for customers because they don’t have to wait and pay for drivers to head to a gas station to fuel up before beginning their routes, he notes.
So far, NOCO has grown its business in Syracuse through word-of-mouth and good old networking, Lee says. However, he’s hoping that the company’s growth plans for the market will help make NOCO a household name.
“We are looking to the central state as an area for growth,” Newman says. His hope is that NOCO can begin offering residential natural gas and electric service by the end of 2014.
“There’s a good solid population base,” he says, and there is also strong interest in independent energy suppliers. NOCO resonates well with customers, Newman contends, because his employees work hard to talk to customers and cultivate relationships with them. “I think people want to know someone is looking out for them,” he says. That type of service will set NOCO apart in the market, he believes.
Newman also hopes to bring the NOCO Express line of convenience stores to the Syracuse region, although the timeline for that project is a little further out at two to three years. The stores would not only bring another fuel option to the area, but also offer some fresh convenience options including Nickel City Market Café, Charlie the Butcher, Tim Hortons, and Just Pizza.
The ultimate goal, Newman says, is to recreate the same system NOCO has in the Buffalo area of having multiple “touch points” where the company can connect with customers.
Currently, NOCO employs 25 people in the Syracuse area, and Newman says he sees that number growing as the firm will need more people “on the street” to help build brand recognition. NOCO employs about 850 people companywide. Newman did not disclose revenue figures.
NOCO (www.noco.com), headquartered at 2440 Sheridan Drive in Tonawanda, has four main divisions — NOCO Express, NOCO Lubricants, NOCO Home Services, and NOCO Commercial and Industrial Fuels — and operates a 42-million-gallon fuel terminal in Tonawanda. Between all its divisions, NOCO provides energy products to customers in New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont, along with Ontario and Quebec provinces in Canada.
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