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In one of the coldest and snowiest winters in recent memory, Marshall kept its customers warm by providing extended hours, 24-hour emergency service and timely deliveries despite the Ol’ Man Winter’s particularly harsh wrath from December through March.
“It was a challenging winter,’’ said Ed Marshall, the grandson of founder Stewart Marshall and now the company Vice President. “Everybody’s volume and costs were way up. It was a challenge to provide the service and doing what was necessary to get there. The service department was certainly busy.”
Marshall said his employees worked extended days and weekends to meet the demands of customers. “Tending to emergencies is one of our best assets,’’ Marshall said. “That’s one area we excel. Some of the places here in Pound Ridge and Bedford can be pretty hilly, but we did our best to make the deliveries. We tried to anticipate as much as we could the storms that were coming. We tried to get ahead, knowing what was going to be coming over the next few days.”
Dependable service has been one of the longtime calling cards for Marshall Oil though, which was founded in 1938. The business began as a small family owned company with one truck and one customer. It is still family-owned and run with Ernie, the son of the founder, acting as President and his sister, Pat, as Secretary and Treasurer.
“I think there’s a care and pride in what we do as a family business to put our best foot forward every day,’’ Ed Marshall said. “The people who work here have been here a long time. We don’t have much turnover. Even the part-time people have been here for six years or more. We’ve had the same nucleus for quite a while. We’re pretty focused on what we do.”
Besides selling and delivering home heating oil, Marshall also provides oil burner sales and service and tank replacement. The company has grown to over 30 trucks and 4,000 customers, and keeps its delivery area within a 25 mile radius of Pound Ridge. Marshall delivers to homes in upper Westchester County and parts of Connecticut.
“We’re focused on what we’ve done,’’ Marshall said. “We’ve kept it as a smaller radius. It’s expanded a little bit, but if you start getting too far you’re worried about your quality of service. We keep to our core area so that we can maintain our quality of services.”
Like its employees, most of Marshall’s customers are long-time clients who like the reliability and dependability of working with a family-owned business.
“Most of our clients have been with us for years,’’ Marshall said. “We have a pretty good neighborly rapport with them. We take new accounts on a daily basis and are always trying to develop long-term relationships with our newer clients. People come and go a little bit, but for the most part, most of our customers have been with us for a long time.”
For complete information on Marshall’s service, visit its website or contact them at 914-764-5766.
